THE future of 18 jobs hangs in the balance after administrators were called into a business at Bournemouth Airport on the last working day before Christmas.

Do Systems Ltd, based at Hangar 62 on Aviation Park East, specialises in airborne surveillance and training.

A statement said Andrew Watling and Andrew Andronikou, partners at corporate recovery and business advisory firm Quantuma, had been appointed administrators on Friday, December 22.

The company also has offices in Malta and is operating a number of contracts in the Middle East.

The statement said the administrators were assessing the options for the business, which was incorporated in April 2007.

There have been no redundancies among the staff so far. Quantuma said the business most recently had an annual turnover of around £12million.

Mr Watling said: “DO Systems Ltd works in a particularly niche market and we are currently assessing both the state of the business and the level of interest in its various services and training facilities.”

DO Systems equips DA-42 M and Beechraft B200 aircraft with imagery and communications equipment, enabling the surveillance planes to provide live feeds.

Its contracts include owning, maintaining and operating the Met Office Civil Contingency Aircraft (MOCCA), a Cessna 421C which can track volcanic ash throughout northern Europe.

It supplied three DA42 planes to Ghana Air Foirce as part of a modernisation programme in the West African Country. A DO Systems training team helped Air Force personnel use the full capabilities of the aircraft and its systems at Air Force Base Takoradi

In 2009, deployed two DA42 MPP aircraft to support Operation Brockdale, the operation to withdraw British troops from Iraq.

The company operates engineering and operations departments which can be deployed anywhere in the world, with ex-military staff able to provide instruction for clients.

Its LinkedIn profile says: “Whether protecting your border, national infrastructure or being able to respond to a critical disaster, DO Systems provide the technology and knowledge to deliver the task.”