Milestone Aviation Group, a helicopter leasing and debt financing company, added $50,000 to the bottom line of nonprofit international safety consortium HeliOffshore during its sixth annual poker invitational tournament Monday evening at Heli-Expo.

This year’s finalists in the event are Steve Nota of Woodside Energy; Irene Makris, Pratt & Whitney Canada; Jonathan Cosson, Heli-Union; Joe Laroche, Milestone Aviation; and Jamie Mitchell, Brunei Shell Petroleum. The finalists were each able to select a HeliOffshore safety program that received funding from the event.

HeliOffshore, of which Milestone (Booth B5204) is a member, was founded in 2014 by leading offshore helicopter operators and today has 120 members, including aircraft and system manufacturers, helicopter operators, and leasing companies. The group shares best practices, provides a forum for the collaborative exchange of information, and facilitates training in system reliability and resilience and operational effectiveness, thus enhancing safety and survivability. 

Since 2017, sponsorship from the Milestone poker tournament has provided financial support in several key areas of HeliOffshore’s collaborative work, including human factors in maintenance, eye-tracking research, terrain and obstacle avoidance, flight-path management, and delivery of safety data insights.