Initially founded in 2015 to deliver a support contract for search and rescue (SAR) operations in the Falkland Islands on behalf of the UK military, helicopter support and hoist training provider Air Rescue UK is due to celebrate its 10th anniversary of operations.

Since then, the company has grown substantially, providing services and training to a range of clients including Alidaunia, Weststar Aviation Services, and Bristow, among others.

Ian Bonthrone, Managing Director of Air Rescue UK, explained that after establishing itself by delivering the Falkland Islands contract, the company began to seek out more long-term SAR support contracts – particularly in fields such as the oil and gas industry.

In the early years, Air Rescue UK’s work was focused on the provision of expertise and crew for SAR helicopters. “So we provide the search and rescue technical crew –  the hoist operators, the winchman,” he explained.

He added that alongside the company’s longer-term contracts, Air Rescue UK also provides support under some “short-term contracts”, such as with Weststar. “We’re now on our third campaign with them, supporting oil and gas in Namibia.”

Training and simulation

In 2017, Air Rescue UK began offering hoist operations training to clients – an area that the company is expanding rapidly into.

“Our first training customer was Alidaunia in Italy,” said Bonthrone. “We started providing their training in 2017, for all their hoist operation training.”

At the forefront of this area of business is Air Rescue UK’s partnership with Bluedrop Training & Simulation, a virtual reality (VR) specialist focused on developing solutions for hoist operations and other aviation support skills.

“In 2022, we were approached by Bluedrop with a view to how ‘simulation as a service’ can be developed [for hoist training],” Bonthrone explained, adding that the model was “already there” for pilot training.

The following year, Air Rescue UK established a subsidiary to support this new area of operations – Air Rescue Training & Simulation – which took over all responsibility for simulation services, as well as all of the company’s existing training services.

The Bluedrop simulator operated by Air Rescue UK is capable of simulating hoist operations from a variety of helicopters. “We’ve got the AW139 in there, the H145, and the S-92 with the dual hoist. We’re having the H225 modeled at the moment. And of course the Black Hawk for military operations.”

Bonthrone is enthusiastic about the potential for this technology, arguing that it offers significant advantages over real-life hoist training. He argues that as well as offering the same level of training at a lower level of cost, fuel consumption, and level of emissions, VR offers trainees a more efficient use of their time.

“On a normal training flight of, say, an hour and a half, most hoist operators would be lucky if they get 20 minutes of actual hoisting in that whole flying period, whereas sorties on the simulators last about 20 to 30 minutes, and all of it is hoisting,” he explained. “So the training is a lot more concentrated, [and you] can easily do four sorties in a day.”

On a normal training flight of, say, an hour and a half, most hoist operators would be lucky if they get 20 minutes of actual hoisting in that whole flying period, whereas sorties on the simulators last about 20 to 30 minutes, and all of it is hoisting

Beyond this, he noted that simulators offer a greater level of consistency than the real thing, allowing every student to experience the same environmental conditions, “levelling out the playing field of training”.

Bonthrone added that Air Rescue UK is now currently working with Bluedrop to develop the ability to record and analyze the movements and behaviors of trainees to more accurately assess ability. The aim, he explained, is not only to help the assessment process, but also “to help the instructor instruct, and to help the students review their own performance and understand whether they are failing or doing well”.

Rapid growth

Since its establishment, Air Rescue UK has grown significantly, Bonthrone said.

“In the space of about three years, from about 2018, we went from running the company in the back bedroom of my house, with most of the storage in the garage, to having facilities of about 300m²,” he noted.

However, the company is now looking to expand again, to a new facility at Freeport East, a multipurpose freight and passenger port in the coastal town of Harwich in southeast England. “We secured the largest unit there to become our headquarters and our training center,” he explained. “We are quickly outgrowing the space we have and for the company to grow beyond 10 years, we need to have space now, and the space for the future.”

We are quickly outgrowing the space we have and for the company to grow beyond 10 years, we need to have space now, and the space for the future

In total, the new site will have a floor space of just under 1,000m², he said, adding: “We’ll have our original simulator in there, and a hoist tower, and we have aspirations by the end of the year of having a second VR simulator there. And also pilot seats so that we can do full crew resource management (CRM) practice with a pilot flying the sim and the hoist operator.

“The new headquarters will offer us better office space, and three 12-man classrooms [with removable walls] that can open out into larger spaces.”

Bonthrone added that, with a view to the future, “we do have space for another hoist simulator – and should the military want it, we also have room for a gunnery simulator”.

Expanding overseas

Air Rescue UK has also made steps to expand internationally through joint ventures, bringing its expertise and training to new audiences.

At the end of 2024, the company formed a new joint venture in Namibia, called Air Rescue Africa, out of the relationship it had built with Weststar and its subsidiary Westair.

The goal of the venture, Bonthrone said, is to make Air Rescue UK “the primary supplier of recruit services in southern Africa”.

More recently, the company announced plans for a second joint venture with helicopter operations firm Brim Aviation, with the aim of bringing Air Rescue UK’s hoist training and operational support services to the USA.

The company announced plans for a second joint venture with helicopter operations firm Brim Aviation, with the aim of bringing Air Rescue UK’s hoist training and operational support services to the USA

The subsidiary, to be called Air Rescue America, will focus on providing training to support offshore industries in the Gulf region.

It is not due to launch until at least early 2026 – “obviously, we need to tie up the formal agreement with Brim Aviation,” Bonthrone clarified – but the outlook is optimistic.

While Air Rescue UK will work with Bluedrop to bring simulation training to the new US facility, a key advantage of the new partnership with Brim Aviation, Bonthrone said, is that “it will give us, for the first time, access to an aircraft that we can use more easily for training”.

“Flying aircraft in the US is cheaper than flying one in Europe,” he said, due to lower costs for “fuel, insurance, and all the regulations”.

“Working with Brim will give us access to an [MD Helicopters] 902 with a hoist, and will let us offer a bit more than we’re doing now,” he concluded.