Prelude Super Chopper Accessibility Transcript
Vision: EC225 Helicopter flying over coast of Western Australia.
Music: Sound of Shell.
Inflight Audio.
“Let’s see where we’re at. Centre console clearing into chops”
Voice over:
High above the waters of Australia’s north-west, the latest recruit to the offshore oil and gas
industry is on a training run.
On board a team of five highly trained paramedics and air crew, led by Mick O’Grady
MICK O’GRADY
SENIOR BASE PILOT
“We’re an all-weather search and rescue service. So that can entail any operations from simple
searching for people through to actually picking them up in any conditions, any sea state, day or
night.”
Vision: EC225 Helicopter landing and taking off from Broome Airport.
Voice over:
Each week, from this base in Broome, 330 people are transported to one of the most remote work
places in the world, the oil and gas fields of the north-west shelf.
And it’s about to get even busier.
Vision: Prelude FLNG footage.
Soon this region will be home to Prelude, Shell’s giant floating liquefied natural gas facility, currently
under construction.
With over 350 operators, getting them to and from work safely is critical.
Vision: Captain Mick O’Grady preparing for take-off.
So Shell Australia has introduced a new rescue service, capable of responding to this region’s
extreme conditions.
MICK O’GRADY: “The conditions are anything from your standard storm cells to full category 5
cyclones. However the aircraft is limited to 60 knot winds or 115kmh winds for winching
operations and we certainly get those conditions on the edge of a cyclone as we are evacuating”
Vision: EC225 Helicopter training for a boat rescue operation off the coast of Broome.
Voice over:
Manufactured by Airbus in France and operated by CHC, the EC 225 is one of the most advanced
search and rescue helicopters in the world
Voice over:
Thanks to the auto hover system, paramedics like Scott Webster, can be winched to almost any
location.
Inflight Audio.
“It’s all happy, got the visual there our line is good, easy, winching him down, standby to mark on
top”
SCOTT WEBSTER
INTENSIVE CARE PARAMEDIC
“You certainly have to have total faith in the team. If you’re on the end of a winch cable dangling
50 foot above a moving vessel scooting along at 10 knots, a whole lot of stuff can go wrong. There
is a lot of highly motivated guys who are at the top of their field and I certainly as a rescue
crewman from that side of things feel completely safe and confident in what’s going on”.
Inflight Audio.
“Ok inside the door, paramedics inside the door there now and he’s secured on the wonder-lead”
Vision: Interiors of EC225 Hangar, Broome airport.
Voice over:
Back on dry land, Pete Gill’s job is to make sure a crew is standing by 24/7.
PETER GILL
BASE MANAGER
“We have 2 pilots available at all times, we have 2 engineers, an air crewmen, 2 medics. So there is
a team of 6 that are permanently sitting there waiting for a call-out if required”
Vision: EC225 Helicopter performing night time rescue training.
Sound of Shell music.
Voice over:
This is the first time such a sophisticated rescue service has come to the north west of Australia and
it’s not just the oil and gas industry that will benefit. When available the service will also provide
much needed support to the local communities.
Vision: EC225 Helicopter flying over coast of Western Australia.
SCOTT WEBSTER:
From here we can service a huge area across the northern part of WA so, I think Shell are
providing a fantastic service to the community and giving a little bit back, which is great to see.
Inflight Audio.
“We are now secured, closing up the right hand door. Roger. Clear to return to base.”
SOUND OF SHELL MUSIC FADES OUT
ENDS.