While preparing for the Wells inquiry, Jamie Martin said a client told him her late husband was stressed and terrified by the underwater helicopter escape training provided to all offshore workers.

That training requires offshore workers to practise escaping through the window of a submerged helicopter simulator while wearing a survival suit. Martin wanted to know if the Marine Institute's Offshore Safety and Survival Centre seeks input from those workers.

"Do you encourage the people to be forthright in telling the institute about what problems, if any, they're experiencing with the training?"

Martin is the lawyer for some families of the passengers who died March 12 when Cougar Flight 491 ditched into the ocean off Newfoundland. Seventeen of the 18 people on board were killed.

Rutherford said the centre sees a wide variety of trainees.

"Some people can breeze through the training - they find it very, very easy. Other people are very, very highly stressed by what we do.

"If people have particular problems we will bring them back individually and, again, we'll work with them to go through this because it is a requirement they complete all the exercises and complete the training."

He said evaluation forms are used to get feedback from trainees along with feedback from instructors.

Martin asked if the centre passes along those concerns, such as those raised about the comfort and fit of survival suits - "Do you take these concerns one step further?"

Rutherford said the oil companies also receive evaluation forms.

"Generally speaking, our first line of communication will be to the supplier of that equipment," Rutherford said.

But, he said, no formal system is in place to lodge concerns about equipment.

Rutherford also said OSSC will be getting new seats and seatbelts for its helicopter simulator that dates back to the 1980s.

The current seats are plastic, molded chairs that might be found in an auditorium - not the high-back seats used in the Sikorsky S-92A to absorb the impact of ditching.

The simulator also uses lap belts instead of the four-point harnesses found on the S-92A.

"From our perspective, it's not an issue," Rutherford said. "However, we have been asked to look at this and to do the change-out, so we do have currently a prototype that's being developed at the university and we're working on that."

Greg Harvey, an OSSC instructor, said offshore workers would benefit from using the four-point harness in training.

"Like the windows, the more realistic we can be, I think, the better.

"The four-point harness does introduce more difficulty for some of the students ... and it would be good if we can have them experience that in training.

"If they are going to have problems with it, I think it's better for them to have it in the training environment than in a real-life situation."

Rutherford said there is "no formal line of communication" when changes are made to the offshore helicopters.

One such change was an auxiliary fuel tank installed in the Sikorsky S-92As operated by Cougar Helicop-ters. It resulted in a reconfiguration of passenger seats.

Randell Earle, the lawyer for unionized offshore workers, asked if OSSC was consulted about the fuel tank.

"We were not consulted on this," Rutherford said. "We find out about changes, generally, by our instructors taking a visit to the helicopter heliport ... and seeing what has changed.

"But there is no direct line of communication."

Rutherford testified Monday the same was true of the oil companies' decision to select a new survival suit - the Helly Hansen E-452, which has been used in the province's offshore industry since late 2007.

Earle asked how difficult it would be for someone sitting in the aisle seat next to the fuel tank to escape from the window of a submerged helicopter.

"I think it would be very difficult, if not impossible," Harvey said.

Until recently, that auxiliary fuel tank was located between the window and the aisle seat.

The inquiry heard this week the tank has since been moved to the single-seat side, or port side, of the aircraft.

Inquiry lawyer Anne Fagan also asked about the added difficulty of escaping from a submerged helicopter while sitting next to the fuel tank.

Harvey said moving in water is difficult and increased distance from the window would "certainly slow down your exit."

He also said the fuel tank would make it more difficult to push out the helicopter window to escape.

"To do that you really have to be next to the window and you have to be supporting yourself because you're buoyant in the water.

"Right here now ... I can lean my whole body weight into the window, but that's not an option I have underwater," Harvey said.

Rutherford said he's not aware of any training program that teaches people how to escape from a helicopter with an on-board auxiliary fuel tank.

OSSC provides a five-day basic survival course and the two-day refresher courses - both certify workers to go offshore for three years.

The centre also offers a one-day course, also valid for three years, for those who go offshore for a maximum of seven days. They are accompanied when they travel offshore.

All three courses train people to get out of a submerged, upside-down helicopter.

Martin asked if the centre has considered changing the duration and frequency of its training sessions.

Rutherford said there is no consensus on whether the courses should be longer, shorter or offered more frequently.

He said the offshore petroleum boards in both Newfoundland and Nova Scotia have been "very, very resistant" to extending the current certification period from three years to four years as is the case in the North Sea.

"There's been a lot of pressure from certain quarters to do that, but they have actually resisted that because they feel that the frequency is appropriate as it stands."

The Offshore Safety and Survival Centre operates on a cost-recovery basis, and goes to funding agencies when it needs money for new equipment or new courses.

Petroleum Research Atlantic Canada (PRAC), which is funded by the oil companies, provided $50,000 toward the $170,000 cost of training offshore workers on underwater breathing devices introduced in May.

Since then, compressed air cylinders have been standard equipment for workers travelling by helicopter.

By the end of October, the centre had trained 1,350 people on the breathing devices, and Rutherford estimated that number is now above 1,500.

The centre also spends almost $350,000 annually to maintain the survival suits used in its training programs.

The inquiry continues today with presentations from Bill Parsons, formerly of the Newfoundland and Labrador Building and Construction Trades Council and St. John's East MP Jack Harris.

mbaird@thetelegram.com