Bristow bases celebrate birthday
Two Bristow Helicopters bases, at Cornwall Airport Newquay and Prestwick Airport, have celebrated their one-year anniversary.
In the UK, two Bristow Helicopters bases, at Cornwall Airport Newquay and Prestwick Airport, have celebrated their one-year anniversary. Both search and rescue (SAR) bases are run by Bristow on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Bristow took over management of the bases on 1 January 2016, and in that time the Prestwick Airport base has completed 350 missions while the Cornwall Airport Newquay base has completed 300.
Newquay chief pilot Captain Mark Coupland said: “It’s been a great first year operating out of our new, purpose-built facility here in Newquay. We’ve had the privilege of delivering the lifesaving service to people on land and at sea as far away as the Channel Islands, the Isles of Scilly and over 150 miles to the southwest.”
Prestwick chief pilot, Captain Craig Sweeney agreed, adding: “I’d like to thank the local community on behalf of all the crews here at the Prestwick SAR base for making us feel so welcome over the past 12 months. It’s a particular honour for me given that Ayr is my home town. We are very proud to have been tasked with maintaining the excellent standards set by the previous military service, which many of us were part of, and we are very much looking forward to the future as part of HM Coastguard’s lifesaving service.”
Russel Torbet, director of UK SAR at Bristow, commented: “After many years of preparation by the Bristow SAR teams, we have now been responsible for the HM Coastguard helicopter SAR service in some parts of the country for about 20 months, since April 2015. I’d like to congratulate the crews for their dedication and commitment to delivering this essential public service. I’m sure that they have become a valued part of the community.”