Following the change in ownership of Sea World Helicopters, changes to the operation gradually degraded existing controls of enhanced communication and in-cockpit traffic display that informed team situation awareness, and the controls were eventually withheld without formal analysis of the change. This reduced opportunity for company pilots to form and maintain awareness of each other's position and intentions.
The operator reinstated and strengthened the controls of enhanced communication and in-cockpit traffic display that informed team situation awareness and has documented them through updated and reissued job hazard analyses. The operator's actions mean pilot's will now have displays of company traffic to reference before departure and will make proactive radio calls to alert each other of their presence. Other safety issues relate to the ongoing protection of these controls.
The operator created 3 new Job Hazard Analysis documents for:
Each of the JHA's detail risk controls for midair collision between company helicopters at the conflict point between the helipads. These included controls such as:
Pilots shall maintain comprehensive situational awareness regarding the movements of both company and CTAF traffic employing effective communication via both VHF and UHF radios.
