The pilot of a helicopter that crashed killing three men was named today.
Former Army Air Corps pilot Ian Shoobridge from Durrington, Wiltshire, died with two engineers, who have not been named, when the Twin Squirrel chopper plunged to the ground on Tuesday afternoon near Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hants.
Mr Shoobridge’s employer Mike Green, manager and chief pilot of FAST Helicopters Ltd, based in Thruxton, Hants, said he and his team were “devastated” by the tragic loss of their colleague and the two engineers on board the helicopter that was operated by the company.
“Our sympathy goes out to the families and friends of the three men,” he said.
“We will be anxious to learn from the investigation exactly what caused the helicopter to fail in flight.
“The pilot, Captain Ian Shoobridge AFM, was an experienced, dedicated commercial pilot and instructor.
“As an ex-Army Air Corps pilot he had flown over 9,000 hours spanning a 25-year career with an unblemished safety record.
“He will be greatly missed by his friends and the industry as a whole.”
A statement issued by the company said the helicopter involved was one of the safest manufactured, with an exemplary history of reliability.
The company said it could make no further comment until the findings of the AAIB investigation were released.
A Hampshire Police spokesman said today the bodies of the men have been removed from the crash site, which is on isolated farmland.
Post mortem examinations are due to take place later today. The spokesman added that formal identification of the dead men would not take place until later today.
Air accident investigators are still at the crash site and police have been picking up debris from the helicopter which is strewn over a large area.
No indication of what could have caused the crash has been identified.
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Link to the report
Tiger_mate:
I can't read the registration on that photo, but G-XCEL was the aircraft based at Thruxton, an AS355 F1.
My thoughts are with Ian's wife and daughter, his colleagues at FAST, and the family and colleagues at AeroMaritime of the two engineers also killed.