Three Major Incidents Prompts Operations Review

Bill Munro, the managing director at Bond Aviation is stepping down, coinciding with a review of the company’s operations that is about to begin. Bond Aviation provides transportation to oil platforms in the North Sea, and has been at the center of three major offshore incidents in as many years.

The Scotsman newspaper reports that two years after Munro became head of the company, a Bond-operated Super Puma went down, resulting in the loss of the two pilots and 14 oil workers on board. The accident was called the worst helicopter disaster in the North Sea for two decades. That same year another Super Puma, carrying 15 oilmen and two pilots, ditched in the North Sea 125 miles east of Aberdeen. Fortunately, all survived. And earlier this month another of the company’s Super Puma fleet was involved in a dramatic controlled ditching 25 miles east of Aberdeen after the pilot reported a low oil pressure problem shortly after taking off from Aberdeen’s heliport.

No reason has been given for Mr Munro’s surprise departure. He was unavailable for comment, and is understood to have announced his decision to resign last Friday. A spokesman for Bond Aviation announced that Richard Mintern, chief executive of the Monarch Travel Group, would be replacing Geoff Williams as chief executive of the company.

Malcolm Paine, director of operations at the [helicopter] company, will assume leadership of the business with immediate effect, the spokesman said.

FMI: www.bondaviationgroup.com