Eric Brown Award 2025
Mark Prior is a former RAF helicopter pilot (1979-1998) who trained at L’École du Personnel Navigant d’Essais et de Réception (EPNER), the French test pilot school.
In 1998 he joined Bristow Helicopters. He was their company test pilot until 2016. During this period he had other management positions including in safety and operations & SAR standards.
During this period, he had significant involvement in two major helicopter trials programme:
1) JIGSAW
Mark Prior was Project Manager and project test pilot for the helicopter test and evaluation element of the BP project to replace stand-by vessels with a mix of helicopters and ‘regional’ marine assets. Between 2002 and 2003 this project, with an AS332L2, sought to demonstrate that a helicopter based either onshore or at an offshore location could achieve the same SAR performance standard in terms of rescue in extreme sea state as a standby-vessel permanently dedicated to each installation. This trial became what is believed to be the most scientific demonstration of SAR capability and ultimately resulted in the Health and Safety Executive’s acceptance of helicopter use for the JIGSAW project, a landmark expansion in the role of SAR helicopters.
2) ACAS II
At one time the regulator’s official position was that helicopters were not compatible with ACAS II collision avoidance technology and so helicopters could not be fitted with an ACAS that was able to give Resolution Advisories when in IMC. After near collision between an AS332L and a fighter aircraft over the North Sea Mark Prior again manage and flew the trials of Bristow AS33L2 G-TIGE, that demonstrated that ACAS II was practical and effective for rotorcraft and lead to a change in regulatory policy across Europe. This resulted in ACAS II becoming an industry recommended practice on modern offshore helicopters with a resulting reduction in Mid Air Collision risk across the industry.
Since leaving Bristow Mark Prior has been an aviation consultant, in demand in supporting a wide range of helicopter usage sectors. Of note is work he has done for on TAWS.
3) TAWS
Mark Prior has worked for UK CAA researching how to make Helicopter TAWS effective offshore and then as secretary of the EUROCAE/RTCA HTAWS committee developing the new standard for such systems that in many cases doubles pilot warning time, making CFIT avoidance far more practical. UK CAA are making these enhancements mandatory offshore from January 2025, tackling one of the major offshore helicopter hazards.
In Conclusion
While Mark Prior has had a long and distinguished career in the helicopter industry to date, these three projects are all on their own significant contributions that deserve recognition and are collectively deserving a formal level of recognition consistent with the Eric Brown Award.
Mark was presented the Eric Brown award at the BHA Safety Day held at Cranfield University on the 6th November 2025
