Operator’s training and assessing procedures for marine pilot transfer operations in degraded visual cueing environments

Safety issue

Safety issue description	The operator's training and assessing procedures for marine pilot transfer operations did not provide assurance that pilot under supervision experience, helicopter instrumentation, and instructor capability were suitable for line training at night in a degraded visual cueing environment.
Issue number	AO-2018-022-SI-005
Issue owner	Heli-Aust Whitsundays Pty Limited
Transport function	Aviation: Air transport
Issue status	Closed – Adequately addressed
Date issue released	16/06/2022
Issue status justification	The ATSB is satisfied that the proactive safety action taken by the operator appropriately addresses this issue.

Action type	Proactive action
Action number	AO-2018-022-PSA-04
Organisation	Heli-Aust Whitsundays Pty Limited
Action description	The operator advised that, since the time of the accident, it had proactively made changes to its training and checking procedures. Those changes include: additional instructors employed for the training and checking function. instructor/trainer/check pilots are required to complete a standardisation check from the left (non-command seat) and are checked from the left seat during completion of their recurrent base checks on type. graduated process for inducting newly recruited pilots for each of the operator’s bases, to qualify initially for day operations and complete a period of day consolidation before being transitioned to night operations. training pathways have been defined and are dependent on the skills and qualifications held by the training pilot.
Action status	Closed