SE-JIF

Information

This aircraft left the assembly line at Bell Helicopter Textron's American factory in Forth Worth, Texas, in December 1992. It was registered in Canada as C-GLZS and was soon sold to Botswana as A2-HAI, but was later returned to the US, registered N72EA. It changed owner several times, holding three further American registrations (N9SN, N317HK and N251SN). The last owner was Sierra Nevada Holdings in New Hampshire.

In mid-2004 the Swedish conference and charter company Oportus AB purchased the machine through the helicopter dealer Michael Savbäck AB. It arrived to Sweden by boat to Gothenburg in early August 2004, only 2300 hours young, and was then transported to the maintenance facility AeroService i Karlskoga AB. After approx 20 days in Karlskoga (on August 23) the helicopter, registered SE-JIF, took off and flew to the car paint company Autolack in Nyköping. The company removed the American registration and attached a SkärgårdsCharter logotype. A day later, on August 24, the helicopter left Nyköping and flew to Norrtälje, only stopping for a short refueling break at Bromma Airport.

The helicopter was sold to Arlanda Helicopter in January 2006. It was used as back-up Jet Ranger for the company’s activities, like air taxi and tourism, and is used whenever needed.

SE-JIF was later sold to a private owner (Storstark AB) in Övertorneå in May of 2008. It was operated in northern Sweden for a few years before it was offered for sale. The aircraft was purchased by a private company in Stockholm in the autumn of 2014.

SE-JIF was sold to South Africa in November 2016.