The deaths of 11 men in a helicopter crash have highlighted the dangers of working offshore. Nick Morrison looks at the risks people take to get oil and gas out of the North Sea.

JUST three weeks ago, Ray was gripping the side of his seat as the helicopter turned upside down and plunged into the water. After counting to ten, he released the seatbelt and kicked out the window, before escaping from the stricken aircraft.

Even though this was just a simulated crash, it was enough to get the adrenaline really pumping. But when it comes to doing it for real, every offshore worker knows that the training exercise is no substitute.

"It can be pretty hairy," says Ray, "but it doesn't matter how many times you do it, when a chopper goes down it is just luck whether you will get out. They can't simulate the real thing."

Ray, an offshore worker originally from South Bank on Teesside, and now living in County Durham, did the simulated crash at the Nutec Centre for Safety at Haverton Hill, Stockton. Every offshore worker undergoes the training before they first head for the rigs, and then again every four years. As a 20-year veteran of the rigs, it is a familiar experience for Ray.

An instrument technician, he is working on a new rig just off the coast of Holland. Next week, he will leave home for another two-week spell offshore, a passenger in a Sikorsky S76, the same type of helicopter which crashed on Tuesday evening.

"They're quite cramped inside. If you're in one of the three seats at the back and anything happens, you have not got a cat in hell's chance of getting out. You have to wait until the four guys in front of you get out, then you have to get out the same window," says Ray, who asked for his real name to be withheld.

Working offshore has always been seen as a dangerous occupation. Spending two weeks on a giant, floating refinery carries an air of risk, but Ray says the industry has tightened up on safety since the Piper Alpha tragedy in 1988.

"It is not particularly dangerous when you are on the rig. There are a lot of safety measures, and I'm not really doing dangerous work," he says.

"The people who are doing the dangerous work are the drillers on the exploration rigs - that can be quite hairy. But when you are offshore you are constantly reminded of the dangers. There are posters everywhere, and you have safety meetings at least once during your fortnight.

"Ever since Piper Alpha the oil companies have been really hot on safety, and the worst part is the chopper flight out, that is when a lot of people do get jittery."

Piper Alpha was a turning point in offshore safety, according to Atilla Incecik, professor of offshore engineering at Newcastle University. Following the tragedy, when 167 people lost their lives, oil companies adopted a zero tolerance approach to safety, he says.

"If something goes wrong on a platform, whether it is an explosion, or oil leakage, or emission of undesirable substances, the whole team gets penalised, including the top management," he says.

"Each design and operation needs to go through safety checks, not only from the point of view of safety, but also damage to the environment."

But despite the advances in safety, risk still remains, and particularly when it comes to getting to the rig in the first place.

"When you are travelling in a helicopter it is one of the risky elements, and if you are on a supply vessel the seas can very quickly become rough," Prof Incecik says. "When you are working in the middle of the ocean there is always more risk than working on the land."

Safety of helicopter flights has been improved since the 1992 Puma crash off the Cormorant Alpha, according to Jake Molloy, general secretary of the Oil Industry Liaison Committee, which represents offshore workers.

"We have since developed adverse weather policies, new life jacket systems and new escape systems. The whole industry has moved on, but unfortunately we simply aren't able to cope with catastrophic events.

"I would still class it as one of the most hazardous areas - 26 helicopter flights a year is something that Joe Public would not normally be doing. You are exposed to a higher level of risk.

"And once there you are living on an installation, which is effectively a refinery stuck on a steel island in the middle of the sea. Overall, it is a hazardous industry, but it has been moving towards improvements, although there is a great deal more we could do."

He says since January 2000, seven people have been killed offshore, and more than 150 have been seriously injured, out of the UK's total of 20,000 offshore workers.

For some time now, Teesside has supplied a large proportion of that 20,000, the result of an industrial tradition coupled with declining employment at ICI and British Steel, forcing those with engineering skills to look elsewhere for work.

And this sent an extra chill into Ray's heart when he heard the news of Tuesday's crash. "It is quite upsetting anytime anything like this happens, you always feel as if you are involved. I have been tuning into the news all day to find out if I know anybody on it.

"It is not a large community, especially in my game, and you tend to move around so you are always bumping into people. It is a bit unsettling, but you don't have any choice unless you get a job somewhere else. You have got to get on with it, it is as simple as that."

The tragic toll of the offshore industry

1986 - 45 people died when a Chinook helicopter crashed into the North Sea. The twin-rotor aircraft, whose three crewmen were ferrying 44 oil workers from Shell platforms in the Brent fields, plummeted into the sea only two miles and one minute's flying time from Sumburgh airport, south Shetland. The majority of the victims died instantly in the accident.

1988 - Explosions on the Piper Alpha rig claimed 167 lives, the worst accident the offshore oil industry has known. The rig, about 100 miles south-east of the Orkneys, had passed a safety inspection just eight days before the tragedy, believed to have been triggered by a leak from gas compressors, or from the oil and gas separation unit.

1988 - A Sikorsky helicopter S-61N ditched into the North Sea en route from a drilling rig 70 miles off north east Scotland. Rescue teams managed to save all 13 passengers and crew on board.

1990 - Six men died when a Sikorsky helicopter struck the Brent Spar oil storage platform in the North Sea.

1992 - 11 men were killed when a helicopter crashed into the North Sea during a routine 200-yard flight, taking workers from Shell's Cormorant Alpha rig to an accommodation barge nearby. Six people on board survived the crash. One was found a mile from the crash site.

1995 - 18 oil men cheated death when a bolt of lightning sent their helicopter crashing into the North Sea as they travelled from Aberdeen to the Brae Field, 150 miles off the Scottish coast. The men were rescued unhurt.

1997 - 12 men were killed when a helicopter ditched into the North Sea while flying to a Norwegian oil rig.

1998 - Two people died in an explosion on the Glomar Arctic IV rig, berthed at Dundee docks.