Babcock Mission Critical Services Offshore are in the process of rotating their AS365N3 fleet, which are based at Blackpool and serve offshore gas installations in the Irish Sea.  In recent weeks they have received two helicopters, one from Germany and one from Tunisia.

The German example D-HAVU was previously in the Babcock (Bond) fleet as G-REDF before it was leased to Heli Aviation in Germany for work with the International Red Cross.  Not long after it left UK shores in November 2015, Babcock bought Heli Aviation and subsequently renamed it Babcock Mission Critical Services Germany.  The subject helicopter returned to the UK in late March 2017 in an all-white scheme.

The second N3 arrived last week in the navy blue colours of Tunisavia, and could well be the first ever helicopter with a Tunisian registration to fly in UK airspace.  TS-HSI is expected to be put onto the UK register in the next week or two.  Babcock MCS Offshore have confirmed to HeliHub.com that these two arrivals are part of the company’s “standard fleet rotation plans” and as such will replace the current two N3s which they operate from Blackpool G-REDG and G-REDH.

In the short term, there will be a temporary increase in Babcock movements at Blackpool to support the arrival of a jack-up platform in the Irish Sea.  The change of aircraft is not linked to this extra work, we were advised.

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