Bristow Photos

[Dave Ed]

Safe Gothia

Safe Gothia



During the late seventies and early eighties the North Sea oil fields were probably at their most active and this led Shell to instigate a Bell 212 shuttle service to serve the Brent oil field installations and surrounding rigs. The Safe Gothia followed in the footsteps of the Treasure Finder and was also to be found in the East Shetland basin and consisted of a hangar built as part of an accommodation platform and attached to a production platform typically the "Brent C".


Believed to be operational during late eighties and through most of nineties, there were, typically, two 212's in the field and one at Unst for maintenance, changing over about every two or three week's. Shell then decided to go down to two a/c after which most of the maintenance was carried out offshore.






All aircraft were fitted with NIGHT SUN, LN450 and FLIR 1000. Most of the time shuttles were the order of the day with a standby requirement for SAR duties.




Gothia based Bell 212 on a training sortie.




Bell 212, G-BALZ, departing Safe Gothia for shuttle operations around the Brent.




Bell 214ST, G-BKFP, on a visit to the Gothia.