In a disruption to offshore operations, helicopter flights transporting workers across the North Sea have been grounded due to a rare weather event known as “triggered lightning”.
This atmospheric phenomenon has caused severe weather conditions, impacting all major helicopter operators in the region.
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Flights from Aberdeen Airport were not permitted to take off today [8 Jan] as a result of the risk.
Triggered lightning is a rare occurrence that happens primarily in the North Sea and the Sea of Japan during winter months.
It involves two key components:
- Ice crystals in cloud bases which create positively-charged areas.
- Helicopters which generate negative charges through static electricity from rotor blade friction.
When a negatively-charged helicopter flies near a positively charged area, the interaction can result in a lightning strike.
This phenomenon typically occurs only once or twice between November and April each year.
Tim Glasspool, Bristow’s Head of UK Flight Operations, explained the challenges: “To a passenger sitting in the Aberdeen terminal, or on an offshore platform, the weather might look pretty decent. On a cold but cloudy day, perhaps with hardly any wind, calm seas and no fog, things might seem good for an on-time departure. But in the flight planning room our Met Office weather forecasting system can tell a very different story.”
This latest grounding follows the situation a couple of days ago when Bristow helicopters were forced to make a weather-related emergency landing at Aberdeen Airport. A spokesperson for Bristow said: “Our teams will work hard to make up the flights as soon as they can but safety will always take priority.
“Weather is a key issue for all operators at this time of year.”
