04452

Information

This helicopter served with the Swedish Air Force as a rescue helicopter between 1964-1991. The helicopter had tail number 92.

Retirement and afterlife
The fleet of Air Force Vertol 107s were gradually retired between 1988 to 1991, as the replacement helicopter (HKP 10 Super Puma) was being delivered from Aérospatiale and FFV Aerotech. The Air Force's HKP 4As gained a total flight time of nearly 62,000 hours.

Following the retirement, four helicopters (04453, 04455, 04458 and 04459) were transferred to the Swedish Navy in order to supply the newly established 13 Helicopter Division in Ronneby with a fleet of HKP 4s. The book "Marinhelikoptern" by Ingemar Norberg and Peter Liander (ISBM 91-630-6078-7) says that the helicopters were converted to navy HKP 4B standards between 1985-1986 and that they were accepted by the navy between January 1988 and December 1991. The four converted helicopters were initially designated HKP 4D (reg. 04073, 04074, 04075 and 04076).

Columbia Helicopters Inc
Four other ex-Air Force helicopters were sold to the large American helicopter operator Columbia Helicopters Inc (CHI) in 1991. The deal included 04452, 04454, 04456 and 04457. The company used Chinooks and Vertol 107s for logging, firefighting and sling load operations in various parts of the world, including Canada, Alaska, Papua New Guinea and Peru.

This aircraft was sold to CHI in October 1991. Once converted to civil standards 04452 got the American registration N193CH on 4 November 1993.

The aircraft was later transferred to CHI's Canadian subsidiary, Helifor (reg. C-GHFT in 1994), but it was unfortunately lost in an accident as it broke up in flight during a logging operation in November of 2005. Two persons lost their lives in the accident.