^ In reality the baskets are also a lot older and not so well designed as the one in the video. When working away from the North Sea ship to ship basket transfers are still fairly common and I have no problem with those. It was descending from a platform helideck maybe 70 metres above sea level that I had a big problem with. I'm not great with heights and clutched that rope netting like a vice.

^^^ Ed, I've never worked on platforms but in the case of lifeboat drills on a boat, a muster is first taken and once everyone has been accounted for, we board a lifeboat. All the time there will be a couple on the bridge to maintain ship's heading, but in a real emergency I guess they would also board a lifeboat if there was no hope. Many boats, such as the one I'm currently working on, have no lifeboat but a few life rafts instead.

On a platform I imagine everyone is assigned to a certain lifeboat and would muster at a nearby station in the case of an emergency... and lifeboats would depart as and when everyone for that particular boat was present. I guess in reality it all depends how catastrophic an emergency is.

The freefall lifeboats in the pic of Grane above were, I think, (PAG would know) introduced after the Piper Alpha disaster. Traditional lifeboats are winched vertically down from a platform/vessel on wires, and released on hitting the sea. This is a big problem if there is burning oil covering the sea in the vicinity of a platform, and so the freefall lifeboats are now used... they hit the sea at an angle which automatically takes them away from the danger. An obvious development really... with the benefit of hindsight.