The Pope arrived in the UK today on a four day visit.  No busy schedule such as the one being undertaken by the Pope is complete without helicopters, and HeliHub.com understands that Starspeed will be operating four Eurocopter EC155 helicopters for this purpose.  This could translate into AS365s and EC155s, as this operator flies both types as well as Eurocopter AS355N, EC135 and Sikorsky S76.

As is usual for VIP flights in chartered aircraft, the Blackbushe-based operator will not use their own “Starspeed” callsigns, but “Sparrowhawk” ones instead, specifically “Sparrowhawk 1 Romeo” up to  “Sparrowhawk 4 Romeo”.  Pope Benedict XVI’s schedule today does not specifically include a helicopter flight, but other days do.

Other helicopter flights associated with the Papal visit include Premiair Aviation flying an S76 or two, Sky News with an AS355 and local police/EMS EC135s