Industry Aviation Headquarters Staverton | Area served United Kingdom Founded 1999 | |
Key people Tim Shattock, Managing Director
David Plester, CEO Website babcockinternational.com Parent organizations Babcock International, Bond Aviation Group | ||
Babcock Mission Critical Services Onshore, formerly Bond Air Services, is the largest operator of Air Ambulance aircraft in the UK. They also provide services to police, offshore windfarms and the oil and gas industry. Babcock operates a mixed fleet of light twin helicopters custom designed to perform specific and specialised tasks. It operates from 22 bases around the UK and in Ireland. It has two major maintenance facilities in Staverton and Glasgow.
Contents
Babcock Mission Critical Services Onshore is headquartered at Gloucestershire Airport, Staverton, Gloucestershire. This is also home to their EC135 flight simulator.
Babcock also provides bespoke Design & Completion services from this location. In 2014 they were contracted by the National Police Air Service (NPAS) to upgrade seven EC135T2 helicopters with new camera and mission systems technologies.
In 2015 Babcock took delivery of the UK's first H145 aircraft, ordered the previous year for use with the East Anglian Air Ambulance. They have since taken delivery of another two H145's for the Scottish Ambulance Service. A fourth is scheduled to enter service on behalf of the East Anglian Air Ambulance charity in 2016.
Customers
Babcock operates 23 helicopters, including 18 air ambulance helicopters from 22 bases around the UK and in Ireland. They provide helicopter services for 10 air ambulance charities and the Scottish Ambulance Service. They operate a police support helicopter for Police Scotland and also provide helicopter support for the renewables industry.
Babcock forges long-term customer relationships based on working in partnership and an ability to explore a range of innovative ownership and finance models to meet with individual requirements.
Services
Babcock works in partnership with customers and aircraft manufacturers.
Their Design and Completions service creates bespoke aircraft and accessories designed for highly specialised and mission-critical roles – from transporting infants to operating on live high-voltage wires.
Their training facility includes a EC135 training simulator (Level III FTD).
Babcock was the first operator to provide night Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) with East Anglian Air Ambulance charity in 2013.
Prince William
In 2014, it was announced that Prince William, Duke of Cambridge would take on a full-time role as a pilot with Babcock - then named Bond Air Services - based at Cambridge Airport. Although a qualified military pilot able to operate as a Sea King captain, William needed a civil pilot's licence and further training before starting operations for the East Anglian Air Ambulance. The Duke started operational flights on 13 July 2015. His wage is donated to charity.
Incident
On 29 November 2013 G-SPAO, an EC-135T-2 operated on behalf of Police Scotland, crash-landed onto the roof of a pub in Glasgow, killing all three people on board and seven in the building.