Oil & Gas UK: Statement on the Phased Reintroduction of Personal Locator Beacons by the UK Offshore Oil and Gas Industry
Manufacturing delays, caused not least by the extreme weather conditions of the past few weeks, have meant that the phased reintroduction of the new personal locator beacons (PLBs) for use by the UK offshore oil and gas industry, will now take place early next month.
The manufacturers of both the PLBs and the pockets to hold them on the life jackets have confirmed that the expected delivery of these items, originally anticipated at the end of January, will now slip by around a week.
However, once the reintroduction programme begins, it is expected that all the UK offshore transport hubs used by the industry will have the new PLBs within two weeks. The Aberdeen hub will be the first to receive the equipment, followed in quick succession by the Southern North Sea helicopter hubs and Scatsa in Shetland.
Bob Keiller, chairman of the Helicopter Task Group which has been co-ordinating the PLB programme, commented: "I look forward to the completion of this roll-out which will be a major step forward for the industry. Not only have the technical difficulties with PLBs interfering with other transmitters been resolved, we have also adopted much more robust life-jacket mounted PLBs. Most importantly, as an industry we have collectively agreed to make PLBs standard issue for all UK oil and gas helicopter flights."
Posted 19/01/2010
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