Louisiana Federal Court Finds Offshore Helicopter Operator Liable For $1.3 Million In Crash

An offshore worker severely injured in a crash when a helicopter had to abort a take-off from an offshore oil platform brought suit against the helicopter operator and its insurer, the helicopter manufacturer, and the platform owner for negligence.  The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana granted summary judgment to the manufacturer, but allowed the plaintiffs’ claims to proceed to a two-day bench trial against the other defendants.

The injured worker claimed that the helicopter operator was liable under respondeat superior for the alleged negligence of the pilot.  The court concluded that the pilot was negligent for taking a flight path that exposed the helicopter to an unreasonably great risk that the helicopter would ingest unignited gases from the open end of a vent boom, finding that a reasonable pilot would have concluded that the risk outweighed any possible benefit from taking off as the pilot had planned.  The court relied on guidance from a Helicopter Safety Advisory-Recommended Practice, which cautioned pilots to remain as far away from the open ends of vent booms as practicable.  The advisory was evidence of industry practice and was also expressly incorporated into the helicopter owner’s training policies.  The court also found that the pilot was negligent for failing to roll the throttle during the crash, which caused the main rotor to spin at full engine power when the pilot raised the helicopter’s collective, thus leading to the loss of directional control.

The court found that the platform owner, however, was not negligent for failing to warn the pilot about the open vent boom, either directly or indirectly through an automated warning system.  The platform owners had no reason to know that the pilot would be attempting to take off during the limited window of a few seconds when gas was being vented.  Likewise, there was no evidence that a lighted warning system to warn pilots of imminent venting in the event of automated compressor shutdowns was adopted within the industry.

The court awarded the plaintiff $1,324,656.24 and found the helicopter owner/insurer exclusively liable.