The Helicopter Survival Course (HUET)

For every occupation of serious note there are usually a number of courses, conferences or weekend getaways that are supposedly designed to improve the knowledge of, share knowledge of or distribute knowledge of the job in hand. In some cases these courses or self-improving days out of the office or factory floor do give new life and meaning to an otherwise day in, day out job. For many the courses are a required part of the job, for promotional reasons or simply without doing the course they are unemployable, and for others it is a means to better themselves.

In other cases these courses, conferences (call them what you may), have the effect of gelling together a serious bunch of alcoholics and piss-heads who' see no other reason for their presence than to drink the local pub dry. These confirmed merry-makers within three days after the event will have no recollection of the course itself - apart from the good times they had in the pub and the hangovers felt during the day.

For seafarers courses have started to intrude big style into an already stressful work place. Laws of the sea require that anybody who sails on a merchant vessel must have a basic prerequisite number of certificates and that these must be updated every five years. As a brief outline, a couple of mainstream courses exist that all must do and in short they are as follows. A two-day course on how to put out the fire that started from the Captain smoking in bed. A four-day course on how to survive at sea when stuck in a little rubber boat because the larger one has done a Titanic on them. And another two-days on how to successfully do an appendix operation with a chisel and hammer when halfway across the Atlantic Ocean and a final course on how to keep healthy at sea.

These are the basic courses for anybody considering a career at sea from an Engineer on a tug to a hairdresser on the QE2. But for the professionals of the business who are further up the ladder than the first rung have to broaden out and attend courses till they are pouring out of the ears. Four day flame-extinguishing course's rear their heads were normally calm and positive sailors are forced into pitch-black containers filled with smoke and flames and are made to crawl around on their hands and knees through red-hot tunnels and small doorways. Safety Management and character building courses test seafarers patience to keep the eyes open as some boring expert tells you what sort of person you are - as if this is a new finding.

Should one work in the Offshore Industry and of course be high up the ladder than an ice-cream server, another course comes along that tests many seafarers ability to remain in the game. Apart from being burnt alive, rowing around a Scottish harbor in the middle of winter, kissing a plastic dummy and being told to wash your socks every day, this additional course tests anybody's desire to remain in steady employment.

The HUET Course.
The acronym of the letters HUET stands for Helicopter Underwater Escape Training and no-one having read the above explanation should doubt further what this course consists of. Yes, just imagine travelling out to the Oil Platform or Offshore Vessel in a helicopter when the damn thing decides to descend rapidly whilst pouring out black smoke from behind. Or imagine simply that the helicopter starts to turn rapidly whilst the blades remain still! Thousands of accidents happen with helicopters: many simply lose power but manage to land safely on water with subsequent rapid and safe evacuation of passengers. Others manage to retain power and land on solid ground or rigs but others still don't manage to do much other than to plunge into the sea with intent on reaching the seabed in as quick a time as possible.

An interesting statistic from Alert Disaster Control (A DNV certified body dealing with HUET training amongst many other courses) states that the survival rate of personnel involved in ditchings of helicopters is as follows:

Whether this statistic suggests that more people have HUET training than do not, or whether those personnel with HUET training tend to fly in safer helicopters, is perhaps secondary to the fact that it is necessary to have this course. Necessary, not only from a practical and self-survival point of view, but also because most companies in the business insist that seafarers and oil rig workers have done the course.

Of course hundreds of thousands of people travel in helicopters and never experience a problem but as with anything it is just in case something does occur. And so for those working in the Offshore Industry the HUET course is a requirement.

THIS IS NOT A THEORETICAL COURSE. This is a practical course and involves every participant being nearly drowned. The first stage of the course is to get used to the machine that is used for the preceding nightmares. It resembles a helicopter with four chairs inside and it is slung from a large hook above a swimming pool, basically a long cylindrical steel canister like a coffin. The initial introduction to this machine is where three participants are strapped in and shown the effect of being dunked downwards into the swimming pool or sea in a rapid manner. Not deep, only to the feet on the first go! The second dunking will be to the neck and at this point the participants will have been told to release their seat belts and to make a timely exit through the door.

All gentle stuff without the need for panic or an upset stomach just yet.

The third part is when the art of holding the breath is critical and until fresh air is found. This is when the machine, with four bodies inside is completely submerged under the water and should you at this point wonder what all the fuss is about - it has not finished yet. The machine once submerged is then rotated 180 degrees and only when everybody is upside down can an exit be undertaken. Should anybody panic, release their safety belt and pull him or herself through the door and upward to safety before they have been turned upside down will not pass the course (unless they do it again and successfully).

As per most courses attendants like to have a few beers of an evening once all the fun and games are over. But such is the stress that runs with this course that many feel obliged not to drink the night before. Certainly afterwards the bars in the local vicinity will make a nice healthy profit as course survivors drink to wipe away the days memories as fast as possible.

As a final note: HUET courses must now be done every three years and in some instances every two - don't sit back and relax too much.