From flames to conservation: A Phoenix takes flight

Based in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Phoenix Heli-Flight operates in the heart of one of the largest sources of oil in the world, the Athabasca Oil Sands. CEO Paul Spring explains why this location leads them to flying a huge range of missions with their Airbus helicopters and playing a massive role in protecting the region’s sensitive biodiversity and keeping the locals safe.

“We’re a heavy oil and gas exploration development community, but we also have a large boreal forest region around us,” explains Spring. “It’s quite common to have forest fires of 2-300,000 hectares in size. We do a lot of environmental monitoring around the oil sands because Canada is a great place to produce but we are also very environmentally responsible.”

Authored on

Tue, 02/24/2026 - 09:29

Phoenix Heli-Flight's Airbus H125 during firefighting operation

A new kind of crane lift

Spring is clearly passionate about the positive impact of Phoenix’s helicopter missions and is quick to highlight one of their more specialised operations. “One of my favourite critical missions is capturing wildlife,” he says. “We do a job where we monitor an endangered species called the Whooping Crane. We carry two veterinarians, a Parks Canada representative and two wildlife biologists. Besides monitoring their water habitat and their nest, we actually live-capture the chicks before they can fly and put tracking anklets on them for their life, so they can check in with GPS towers on the way back to Texas. We share that flock of endangered species birds [between] Canada and Texas, together. I don’t think I could do that job without an H125. We’re landing in some of the most inhospitable landing areas in the world, in swamps, tight confined areas where no one ever goes. This is the perfect aircraft for it.”

The local geography presents the Phoenix team with a range of different demanding operations and operating environments. “There are so many challenging missions,” notes Spring. “From landing on moving ice flows to deploying rescue swimmers to save lives, but probably the most demanding role we have is the firefighting role.” He underscores the vital function that helicopters have in allowing pilots to focus on the job in hand. “[You have] long days, in the smoke, working with multiple aircraft. Visibility is key for us - having big skylights, windows, and chin bubbles. Comfort is also a factor - if you’re going to spend a full day flying a helicopter waterbucketing, you might be doing a water cycle every 2-2.5 minutes, you don’t want to feel beat up at the end of the day because you want to be able to fly the next day.”  

Authored on

Tue, 02/24/2026 - 10:59

Phoenix Heli-Flight's Airbus H125 during firefighting operation

Teaming with positivity

Spring is proud of how Phoenix Heli-Flight serves the local population and believes that the isolated geography creates a closer bond between people and the helicopters they regularly see in action. “I think that our community being remote, in a fire zone, and a heavy industrial zone, is well aware of the role that helicopters play. They see us on the highways, in the woods, helping people all the time. It’s very well appreciated by the community and very well recognised. [If] someone is having a really bad day, we’re there to help and we’re glad we can.”

As well as looking to invest in more helicopters, like many, Spring sees the potential in using uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) to support their parapublic operations. “We’re moving into drones now - they are now part of our search and rescue programme. We can’t always deploy all the assets we need and we’re finding that UAS are a valuable aid to fly near and work with helicopters. So, drones are part of our future.” With such a wide array of missions and a huge area of rugged terrain, people and wildlife to protect, Phoenix Heli-Flight are well placed to be at the forefront of how teaming technology can be deployed.