Underwater Helicopter Escape Course for Offshore Workers Offered at NASA Facility
Training companies are offering an OPITO-approved Tropical Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET) course at the Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.
The 2014 Offshore Technology Conference is taking place this week at the Reliant Center in Houston, bringing an estimated 80,000 attendees from around the world to see and learn about the latest products and technologies for offshore energy production and exploration. One announcement during the event, featured in the conference's May 7 show daily, involves Hi-Con Training – a partnership between Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC and Petrofac Training Services – and a Tropical Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET) course it now offers at the Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. The lab includes a pool 40 feet deep, filled with 6.2 million gallons of water, that is used by NASA to train astronauts for weightlessness.
It is an OPITO-approved course, OPITO being the oil and gas industry's focal point for skills and workforce development standards. OPITO has increased its HUET requirements, so the course has expanded from four to eight hours. It includes specific training on preflight and in-flight requirements for tropical environments, including:
- Action prior to ditching
- Actions following simulated ditching, including submersion and inversion of the helicopter
- Deployment and operation of Emergency Breathing Systems
- Helicopter emergency procedures
An OPITO-approved HUET certificate is issued upon successful completion of the course.
Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC manages NASA’s underwater training facility.