Alan Mann's G-BBEU arrives at Farnborough on 9th September 1976
Some comments relating to BBEU from the Nostalgia Thread:
Savoia wrote: G-BBEU (a Bell) was delivered to Ben Turner Helicopters in August '73. From Ben Turner she moved on to Heli-Air then to Alan Mann in '75. In January '78 she was bought from Mann's by International Messengers, a courier company founded by Andrew Walters, a friend to my godfather who later went on to order a new Agusta-built 206, G-OIML.
In July '81 Hanson's bought BBEU and about a year later she was exported to Uganda (via Autair) to become 5X-MIA. There she flew with the Uganda Police Air Wing until, as with every rotorcraft they have ever owned, she crashed during operational flying duties.
TRC wrote: The roof was changed due to suspected honeycombe delamination as per the Bell rep. It was decided to build a jig at Fairoaks rather than send the fuselage to Sweden (I think). During the 6 months or so that it took to sort the jig out, EU sat in the corner getting steadily smaller as the duty ‘Christmas Tree’. We cut various bits out of the old roof after it was replaced but it seemed sound – oh well!