Based in London, Tony covers European defense programs. Prior to joining Aviation Week in November 2012, Tony was at Shephard Media Group where he was deputy editor for Rotorhub and Defence Helicopter magazines. Tony has covered avionics, unmanned vehicles, the supply chain and cyberwarfare.
In the North Sea, the Eurocopter EC225 has been a workhorse, plying routes between bases in Norway and Scotland oil and gas platforms. But for 10 months, the helicopter has been missing from such operations, grounded as engineers searched for the root cause of the failure in its bevel gear vertical shaft. For the major operators in the North Sea region such as Bond Offshore Helicopters, Bristow Helicopters and CHC Scotia, the loss of the type from their fleets had a dramatic impact on their capacity to fly for customers.
