Fedje Heliport, Høgden ( no, Fedje helikopterplass, Høgden; ) is a municipal heliport situated on the island of

Fedje Fedje is an island municipality in the Nordhordland region of Vestland county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Fedje. The traditional economic activity of the inhabitants is fishing. The municipality is ...

, Norway. It is predominantly used to fly maritime pilots out of the pilot station at Fedje Vessel Traffic Service Centre. It is also used by air ambulances and as an emergency landing site for offshore helicopters. The heliport was built in 1994.

History

Fedje Vessel Traffic Service Centre was established on 1 September 1992. As both a vessel traffic service and a pilot station, it controls and serves shipping traffic into two major oil terminals,

Mongstad Mongstad is an industrial site in Vestland county, Norway. The site sits on the border of the municipalities of Alver and Austrheim, with most of the site in Alver. The site features an oil refinery for Equinor and other oil companies, including ...

and Sture. The

Norwegian Coastal Administration Norwegian Coastal Administration ( no, Kystverket) is a Norwegian government agency responsible for the water transport infrastructure along the 9,200 km Coast of Norway. It is responsible for coastal navigation infrastructure, pilotage a ...

had sporadically used helicopters to fly pilots out to major ships and installations. The oil terminal operators

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian state owned enterprise, state-owned multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger. It is primarily a petroleum company, petroleum company, operating in 36 countries with ad ...

and Norsk Hydro pressed for this to become a permanent feature out of Fedje. A deal was therefore struck where helicopters would be used on a regular basis out of Fedje. Helicopters were used in harsh weather where it would be difficult or dangerous for the pilot boats to run out to the ships. To aid operations, Fedje Municipality built a heliport on the island and the Coastal Administration subcontracted flights to Helikopter Service. Starting in January 1996, the helicopter service was made permanent and offered to any ship heading to Mongstad or Sture which exceeded a

gross tonnage Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weigh ...

of 20,000. Costs for the helicopter were originally not included in the pilot's fee and were paid directly from the shipping company to Helikopter Service. A three-year contract for helicopter services for the pilots was issued in 1997. Three companies bid and Helikopter Service won. The helicopters would often fly low over the settlement, around the clock, causing complaints from local residents. From 2002 the contract was won by Lufttransport. This time the contract was extended and also included the responsibility for flying pilots out of

Kvitsøy Vessel Traffic Service Centre Kvitsøy Vessel Traffic Service Centre ( no, Kvitsøy trafikksentral), commonly abbreviated Kvitsøy VTS, is a vessel traffic service and pilot station, pilot dispatch station situated on the island municipality of Kvitsøy in Norway. Its main res ...

Operations

The primary use of the heliport is in conjunction with the pilot station at Fedje Vessel Traffic Service Centre. Transport of pilots to ships is offered to ships which exceed 30,000 gross tons with dangerous or polluting cargo and headed for the terminals at Mongstad or Sture. These flights are provided by Lufttransport using an AgustaWestland AW109 based at Bergen Airport, Flesland. The heliport can also be used as an emergency landing site for offshore helicopters operating out of Flesland. It is also used by the

Norwegian Air Ambulance The Norwegian Air Ambulance Service (Norwegian: ''Den norske luftambulansetjenesten'') is organised through the government owned limited company Luftambulansetjenesten HF (formerly ''Helseforetakenes Nasjonale Luftambulansetjeneste ANS''). The serv ...

when needed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fedje Heliport, Hogden Heliports in Norway Airports in Vestland Fedje Airports established in 1994 1994 establishments in Norway