On Friday 3rd January, the Border Guard of Ukraine received their first two Airbus H125 helicopters, arriving in a yellow and blue scheme for a launch event at Kiev. The pair will initially be used for crew training.

Available images, including the ones in this report, show that an uncomplicated avionics fit has been specified. Of greater interest is the fitment of a hoist on the port side, relatively rare for this size of helicopter.  Sliding doors are fitted on both sides of the helicopter, which is logical for hoist operations.  Further fitments noted include floats, cargo hook and the wire-strike system above and below the windscreen.

These are the first of 24 H125s to be delivered in a contract signed in June 2018 which also covers 10 new H145s and 21 H225s repurposed from previous offshore oil industry work.

The two H125 aircraft are
MSN 8788 delivered as F-WTBT, previously test flown as F-WWPD
MSN 8801 delivered as F-WTBU, previously test flown as F-WWXN

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com