Coptersafety and Østnes to launch H125 ‘Safety as a Service’ offering

Østnes, a Nordic Airbus Helicopters distributor, is now an authorized dealer for Coptersafety training services in an aim to improve the operational safety of Airbus H125 (previously AS350) helicopters in Nordic countries.

There are approximately 460 helicopters across the Nordic countries, 120 of which are H125s (26%). Each H125 employs between one and three pilots. “The Airbus H125 is currently the dominant single engine model in the Nordic countries,” said Frode Østnes, President of Østnes. “There is a clear demand for better training solutions and capabilities in onshore single engine helicopter operations.”

According to research, single engine helicopters are ten times more likely to have an accident in onshore operations than helicopters being used in oil and gas (O&G) operations offshore, and that over 50% of accidents onshore are due to pilot error.

Studies show one of the biggest reasons for the higher safety performance in O&G operations is the use of full flight simulators during training. Coptersafety’s training centre, which is adjacent to the Helsinki International Airport in Finland, houses the world’s first Level D qualified H125 full flight simulator.

Mikko Dahlman, CEO of Coptersafety, commented, “With our new H125 level D simulator we can now jointly offer the safety culture and training capabilities already seen in O&G, search and rescue and helicopter emergency medical services operations to a whole new range of single engine onshore operators. As a result, we hope the number of single engine onshore helicopter accidents can be efficiently mitigated.

“Coptersafety is independent from any helicopter or simulator manufacturers, unlike most training providers. With Østnes we are now offering pilot training like Safety as a Service (SaaS), which is something we have not yet seen in the sector,” Dahlman continued.