Fugro has become one of the first companies to secure accreditation from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Helideck Certification Agency (HCA) as an approved supplier of helideck monitoring systems (HMS) conforming to the new 2021 CAA standards.

The standards, which were issued in November 2020, apply to all offshore floating assets operating in European waters which have helidecks and to floating assets overseas where UK-registered helicopters operate (excluding Norway, where Norwegian standards apply).

According to Fugro, the process of achieving this accreditation began in 2015, when the CAA contracted the company to develop HMS software conforming to the regulator’s new specifications and trial the prototype HMS on an offshore floating asset. Fugro partnered with Ithaca Energy for the trial.

Fugro says that it has been improving and refining its product over the intervening five years, and the result is an optimised HMS that improves the safety of helicopter operations on floating assets. The company’s complete helideck monitoring solution includes all hardware, software, remote and on-site support, and geo-data analysis needed to enable helideck operators to update their systems to the new standards efficiently and cost-effectively.

Alex Webb, project manager at Fugro, stated: “As one of the first companies in the world to achieve accreditation to the new CAA HMS standards, the applied depth of knowledge and experience of our team will save helideck operators time in updating their systems and provide a robust HMS tailored to harsh offshore environments.”

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