BA Helicopters

[10secondsurvey]

Hope nobody minds me posting this question.

I was reading the BA inflight magazine, highlife recently, and in the pilot profile spot, the featured staff member, mentions his father having flown BA helicopters.

I'm wondering if anyone here can fill in with any info, as prior to reading this, I had no idea BA had previously had a helicopter fleet.

Where did they fly to, and what was their role within the BA network?

[youngskywalker]

During the 80's they did operate a fleet of helicopters out of Aberdeen in support of the oil and gas industry. I think the fatal chinook crash at Sumburgh didnt do them much good. Probably get a better response in the heli forum, must be some old north sea guys there who know more than I.

[gruntie]

Didn't they use to operate Penzance - Scilly? or is that my imagination?

[MReyn24050]

British Airways involvement with helicopters started way back with British European Helicopters back in 1947 when BEA set up their Helicopter Experimental Unit and the formation of the Gust research Unit. On the 26th June 1947 the BEA Board decided to order five helicopters from the USA , three S.51s and two Bell 47.
Yeovil was selected as the base. The aircraft made their first appearance on the 28th September 1947 at Hampden Park Glasgow when the S.51s G-AJOR and AKCU were demonstrated.

The Bell 47s were G-AKFA and G-AKFB

As gruntie indicated BEA Helicopters did operate S.61 helicopters from Lands End to the Scillies. the first S.61 flight was flown by G-ASNL commanded by Capt Cameron on the 1st May 1964.

The full history of BEA/BA Helicopter operations, wriiten by Phil Lo Bao, has been published by Air Britain

[Mr_Grubby]

A BEA S-61 at Hurn in '64

C.

[10secondsurvey]

Thanks for all of the useful info, and helpful posts. Thank you for the pic, Mr Grubby.

[youngskywalker]

do a search on airliners.net and you will find pics if the BA chinook, lovely machine

[MReyn24050]

The following is a list of aircraft operated by British European Helicopters before they became British Airways Helicopters on the 31 March 1974.
[LIST=1]
[/Aircraft Registration Serial No Date Remarks

Agusta Bell 206 Jet Ranger G-AWGU 8044 27-Apr-68 To British Airways Helicopters
Agusta Bell 47J G-APTH 1058 02-Apr-59 02/04/1965 Sold to R.A.Wade
Bell 47 G-AKFA 69 24-Jul-47 WO Garwick 04 Jan 55
Bell 47 G-AKFB 73 24-Jul-47 11/09/1964 Sold to Autair Helicopters
Bell 212 G-BAFN 30550 01-Nov-72 To British Airways Helicopters
Bristol 171 G-ALSR 12886 09-Nov-51 15/10/1954 Leased not owned by BEA
Bristol 171 G-AMWG 13068 25-Jun-53 12/07/1956 Sold to Ansett ANA
Bristol 171 G-AMWH 13069 30-Jun-53 04/08/1964 Sold to be used as aerial crane
Bristol 173 G-AMJI 12872 20-Jun-56 20/08/1956 Leased not owned by BEA
Sikorsky S.51 G-AJHW 5117 08-Aug-49 12/07/1953 Sold to Autair Helicopters
Sikorsky S.51 G-AJOR 5132 26-Aug-47 16/07/1953 Sold to Autair Helicopters
Sikorsky S.51 G-AJOV 5135 13-Oct-47 09/06/1954 Sold to Autair Helicopters
Sikorsky S.51 G-AKCU 5128 09-Oct-47 WO Cresor Dam 24 May 49
Sikorsky S.61N G-ASNL 61220 28-Jan-64 To British Airways Helicopters
Sikorsky S.61N G-ASNM 61221 05-Feb-64 WO North Sea 15 Nov 70
Sikorsky S.61N G-ATBJ 61269 08-Apr-65 To British Airways Helicopters
Sikorsky S.61N G-ATFM 61270 08-Oct-65 To British Airways Helicopters
Sikorsky S.61N G-AWFX 61216 05-Sep-68 To British Airways Helicopters
Sikorsky S.61N G-AYOM 61143 07-Jan-71 To British Airways Helicopters
Sikorsky S.61N G-AYOY 61476 22-Feb-71 To British Airways Helicopters
Sikorsky S.61N G-AZCF 61488 22-Aug-71 To British Airways Helicopters
Westland WS.55 G-ANFH WA15 02-Nov-54 13 Aug 68 Sold to Bristow Helicopters
Westland WS.55 G-ANUK WA39 10-Dec-54 14 May 57 Sold to C.H.R. Salverson Ltd
Westland WS.55 G-AOCF WA56 29-Aug-55 24 Oct 66 Sold to Libya
LIST]

It is rather busy I am afraid.

Mel

[Agaricus bisporus]

It is worth mentioning that when BAH was sold to Mirror Group in '86 that fat lying thieving bastard maxwell saw an unparalelled opportunity to help himself to a large number of very fat long-term BA pensions, which sadly had to be transferred with the company for legal reasons. Even at that time there were grave doubts about the security of Mirror Group pensions, and tragically several scores of career pilots and others subsequently lost thier entire career's pensions to this criminal and many probably suffer to this day. Drowning was far too good for him.

The Chinook accident had no bearing on the end of BAH, the Mirror mugging was already in place by then, and (memory fails here) may well have actually happened by that time.

[youngskywalker]

wasnt just Pilots who lost out, lot's of highly skilled engineers also suffer to this day because of the pension scandal.

[PPRuNe Pop]

British International run the helicopter service from Penzance - Scillies these days - still with the S.61.

[Kiltie]

British Airways Helicopters G-AVIG Bell 206 was based at Inverness in the late 70s / early 80s before being written off abroad I think.

[HZ123]

Sadly I also recall the loss of all on a S61 crash on approach to the Islands in the early 80,s i believe as I had the misfortune of manning the phones in BA ops centre then in QB.

[Kiltie]

HZ123 the Scilly Isles disaster resulted in the loss of all on board, with the exception of the Captain, First Officer and a child I believe. The Captain went on to fly with PLM, latterly PDG Helicopters in Scotland but sadly died very suddenly last year. He was well respected among the commercial helicopter fraternity.