Gama Aviation delivers H135 / H145 modifications for the National Police Aviation Service (NPAS)

Farnborough, UK, 29th October 2018 – Gama Aviation Plc, the global business aviation services company, is pleased to announce that it has designed, fitted and test flown the first of 19 cockpit voice and flight data recording systems for NPAS H135 / H145 fleet.

The contract, secured via a competitive tender for the design, supply and fitting of improved Cockpit Audio Recording System (CARS) & Airbourne Image Recording System (AIRS) is being driven as a consequence of AAIB safety recommendations 2015-032, 033, 035 and CAA Safety Directive SD-2018/002 following the tragic H135 T2+ crash at Clutha, Glasgow, 2013 in which ten people were killed.

Tim Gordon, NPAS Project Team Leader, Europe Ground comments: “While the tragic circumstances behind the issuance of the Safety Directive cannot be forgotten, the new systems aboard the aircraft will provide information intended to make operations safer in the future. With the whole fleet requiring the modification, managing aircraft downtime has been a key element of the program something we have achieved by streamlining the design, installation, flight testing and acceptance process.”

Scott McVicar, Managing Director, Europe Ground comments: “Our passion for developing mission appropriate systems once again sees our design, production and engineering teams working as one to deliver an appropriate, value-based solution to our client.”

Scott Gallagher, MBE, Project Manager – Aviation comments: “We are pleased to be working with Gama Aviation whilst transitioning towards full adoption of the Safety Directive (02/2018) across the NPAS fleet with the aircraft having been modified to a high standard”