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..........Bristow Base: Safe Gothia, UK North Sea.

During the late seventies and early eighties the North Sea
oil fields were probably at their most active and this led Shell
to instigate a Bell 212 shuttle service to serve the Brent oil
field installations and surrounding rigs. The Safe Gothia
followed in the footsteps of the Treasure Finder and was also
to be found in the East Shetland basin and consisted of a hangar
built as part of an accommodation platform and attached to a
production platform typically the "Brent C".


Believed to be operational during late eighties and
through most of nineties, there were, typically, two
212's in the field and one at Unst for maintenance,
changing over about every two or three week's. Shell
then decided to go down to two a/c after which most
of the maintenance was carried out offshore.


All aircraft were fitted with NIGHT SUN, LN450
and FLIR 1000. Most of the time shuttles were the
order of the day with a standby requirement for SAR
duties.


Gothia based Bell 212 on a winch training sortie.






Bell 212, G-BALZ, departing Safe Gothia for shuttle
operations around the Brent.




Bell 214ST, G-BKFP, on a visit to the Gothia.