Ah
Elipix .. how great to see you back!
And in such fine form doing what you do best .. pulling out of your Helipixman's Collection 'hat' hard or otherwise impossible-to-find-elsewhere images, lol, great stuff! Had been looking for a shot of G-AXAY for over a year.
I mentioned (both in post 183 on this thread and elsewhere on the Ferranti Thread) the terrible tragedy which befell G-AXAY on 7th March 1974 when she literally broke apart in mid-air over Inkpen Hill, Hungerford. It was, to the best of my knowledge, the most dramatic (and obviously catastrophic) Bell 206 accident in UK rotary history at the time.
The next 'most shocking' Bell 206 accident to occur (in the UK) would take place three years later on 15th May 1977 when a radio-less Tiger Moth (whose pilot had failed to read the Notam advising that the grass runway he was approaching at the Biggin Hill Air Fair was in fact closed to operations) flew into the main rotors of Ferranti's G-AVSN killing Hugh Lovett and his four passengers. My godfather never really got over this incident and bemoaned the loss of his beloved pilot for the remainder of his career somehow managing to find cause to blame himself for the events of that day and which, of course, was utter nonsense.
G-AXAY was the 32nd 206 to be registered in the UK (in March 1969) and, as Helipix mentioned, was assigned to Start Hill Plant Hire of Bishop's Stortford. In June 1971 she was transferred to 'Camlet Helicopters' - another British rotary firm I've never heard of before .. and it was while under their tenure (presumably leased to Manfred Mann) that she met her demise.
The photo which the inimitable 'Elipix' showcased is almost certainly taken in July of 1973 when, I suspect, Mann's were running AXAY into the International Air Tattoo at Greenham Common.
In a picture of ill-fated doom, sitting behind G-AXAY in Helipixman's shot is a Ferranti JetRanger (although not G-AVSN but G-AWJW which was attending the same event at Greenham in '73). The yellow overalls of Ferranti's ground crew are just visible and would doubtless have meant that they were 'at hand' to enforce the Colonel's standard requirement that no Ferranti-craft be permitted to fly anywhere at any time unless it epitomised his ideal of constant cleanliness! The Colonel had a long list of 'no no's' which basically precluded the aircraft from being released for operational duty in anything other than showroom condition!