04457

Information

This helicopter was manufactured in 1965 and served with the Swedish Air Force as a rescue helicopter until 1991. The helicopter had tail number 97.

1970 Incident
This aircraft was involved in a taxi mishap at the Air Rescue Base at Visby Airport on 20 March 1970. The accident occurred as the crew of two was hovering the helicopter to the helipad in front of the hangar, with the intention to land as close to the hangar doors as possible in order to minimize the towing distance. The crew misjudged the distance, why the aft rotor collided with the hangar wall, resulting in substantial damages to the helicopter, including a severed aft rotor pylon. The helicopter was airlifted from the location by the Hkp4 04458. 04457 was later restored and returned to service.

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. 04457 got the American registration N196CH.

On 4 October 1996, whilst on a maintenance check flight following the conversion from a Model HKP 4 to a civil BV 107-II, the rotorcraft's flight control system failed and the aircraft crashed, killing three. The accident occurred at Canby, Oregon, after only 1,4 hours of total flight time after the conversion.