A PIPEFITTER who worked off-shore for 12 years last night revealed how he shuddered when he heard the news of the Morecambe Bay tragedy.

Steve Collinson, from Hartlepool, told of workers' fears every time they made a helicopter journey to the rigs, and admitted: "You were putting your life on the line each time."

The 55-year-old, who worked in North Sea oil and gasfields off Aberdeen and Great Yarmouth, said: "I had a shiver down my spine when I saw what had happened."

Offshore workers undergo rigorous survival training to prepare them for emergency landings and crashes, and all those on board wear wetsuits and life-jackets.

Even if a helicopter turns upside down, all the people who travel in them are trained in a "dunker" - a cage in a swimming pool where they practise escape.

But Mr Collinson said: "Although the helicopters were well maintained and the pilots were very skilled, you always had at the back of your mind that if it did go down, that was it.

"All the workers did off-shore survival courses and practised for the eventuality of ditching in the sea, but everybody knew what would happen if you went in there.

"You were prepared, but everyone was aware that if it was anything but a 100 per cent perfect ditch, you were done for.

"If it was some in-flight problem with the helicopter and you dropped a few hundred or thousand feet at 100mph, there was no going back.

"We once dropped a few feet and everyone sat bolt upright thinking 'this is it - it's the end'."

Many of the UK's 20,000 off-shore workers - a vast proportion of which are supplied by the North-East, and Teesside in particular - consider the helicopter flights the most hazardous part of their job.

When a tragedy like Wednesday night's happens, every one of them will feel as if they are involved, such is the close-knit bond between them.

Mr Collinson said: "We were all supposed to be seasoned campaigners in offshore work, but everyone was the same and we all knew at the backs of our minds that if we went down, we would be very, very lucky to come out alive.

"There was always a risk - it was there every time you took off and landed.

"The pilots are obviously very well trained and have been there countless times before, but when you are flying into a wind, or if there is a cross-wind, the helicopter shudders a bit and it is scary."

Safety of helicopter flights has been improved since the 1992 Puma crash off the Cormorant Alpha platform 100 miles north-east of Shetland claimed the lives of 11 men

A French-built Super Puma helicopter, carrying 15 workers and two crewmen, plunged into the North Sea seconds after taking off from the Shell platform to make a short hop to an accommodation vessel.

Jake Malloy, general secretary of the Oil Industry liaison committee, which represents offshore workers, said despite the improvements, the job is still one of the most dangerous in the world.

"We have since developed adverse weather policies, new life-jacket systems and new escape systems," he said. "The whole industry has moved on, but, unfortunately, we simply are not able to cope with catastrophic events.

"I would still class it as one of the most hazardous areas - 26 helicopter flights a year is something that Joe Public would not normally be doing - you are exposed to a higher level of risk."