Today (29 April), five years on from the Turøy, Norway, helicopter disaster that cost people their lives, Stockton North MP, Alex Cunningham, has reiterated his calls for better safter training for the transportation of offshore workers.
Transportation safety of offshore workers has been a longstanding campaign issue for Alex in his eleven years as MP, and he has worked closely with the RMT union to highlight this issue in Parliament. Last year, Alex raised his concerns that the Government had yet to implement the 2014 Civil Aviation Review on transportation safety in full, after it emerged that just fifteen of the twenty-nine recommendations had been implemented.
Forty per cent of the UK’s 51,000 North Sea UK workers – many of them from Teesside – are transported 200 miles to their workplaces by helicopter.
Alex said:
“Offshore workers have battled job cuts and an uncertain future, but have continued to work hard and support other key workers throughout the pandemic.
“The safety of offshore workers are safe travelling to and from their place of work must be a priority. That’s why, on the fifth anniversary of the tragic loss of life over Turøy, I’m repeating my calls for the Government to work with the Civil Aviation Authority and trade unions, and implement the safety measures in full.”
