HUET with EBS – OPITO

Course Purpose

The HUET with EBS course provides flight crew and passengers travelling by helicopter with the knowledge and practical skills required to respond effectively to an emergency landing or ditching.

Course Structure

The course includes theoretical instruction and practical training covering sea survival and rescue techniques, from the moment of ditching until the arrival of the emergency services. It also covers helicopter evacuation procedures, including the use of an Emergency Breathing System.

The course is delivered in Italian and, upon request, in English.

HUET Course Programme

Programme

Theoretical Training

Helicopter Travel

• Pre-flight briefing
  • Pre-boarding procedures, including arrival at the heliport, required documentation, suitable clothing, prohibited items, check-in procedures, helicopter transit suits and aviation life jackets
  • Safe boarding procedures
  • Use of seat belts and harnesses
  • Pre-flight safety video
  • Procedures to follow during the flight
  • Safe disembarkation

Helicopter Emergencies

• Actions to take during an in-flight emergency
  • Brace positions
  • Impact-attenuating seating systems
  • Procedures in the event of an emergency landing or ditching
  • Helicopter safety features, including flotation systems, escape routes, emergency exits and life rafts
  • Independent actions to be taken during an emergency
  • Survival actions following evacuation after ditching, including survival aboard a life raft, in the water or following an emergency landing
  • Emergency Breathing System, including available versions, pre-use checks, operating principles, duration and associated buoyancy characteristics
  • Personal Locator Beacon

Practical Training

• Donning a helicopter transit suit, aviation life jacket and Emergency Breathing System, and carrying out EBS integrity checks
  • Deploying, operating and breathing from an EBS in dry conditions
  • Actions to be taken in preparation for an emergency landing or ditching
  • Actions following a controlled emergency landing, including evacuation through a designated exit
  • Deploying, operating and breathing from an EBS in a swimming pool using the participant’s own exhaled air before completing the HUET exercises. Participants must breathe from the EBS in both positive and negative body orientations created by tilting and positioning the body in the water
  • Actions following a controlled ditching, including deploying the EBS and, following instructions from the aircrew, removing a push-out window and evacuating through a designated exit onto an aviation life raft
  • Assisting, where practicable, with the initial actions required after boarding an aviation life raft, including securing the painter lines, deploying the sea anchor, erecting the canopy and maintaining the raft

Underwater evacuation through a window following partial helicopter submersion

• Without deploying the EBS and without removing the window
  • With deployment, operation and use of the EBS, without removing the window
  • With deployment, operation and use of the EBS, including window removal

Underwater evacuation through a window following helicopter capsize

• Without deploying the EBS and without removing the window
  • With the EBS deployed and operated at the surface before capsize, without removing the window
  • With the EBS deployed and operated at the surface before capsize, including window removal
• Inflating an aviation life jacket and deploying the spray visor in the water
  • Boarding an aviation life raft from the water

Participants must hold either:

• A valid offshore medical certificate
  • A valid medical certificate confirming fitness to participate in the course

Upon successful completion of all theoretical and practical assessments, participants will receive an OPITO-approved Helicopter Underwater Escape Training with EBS, HUET with EBS certificate.