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Comments: The photo above shows the S.61N at its new base at Waterford Airport, summer 2002.
This Sikorsky S.61N, EI-SAR (c/n 61143), is one of four S.61Ns operated by CHC (Ireland) Ltd., formerly Bond Helicopters (Ireland) Ltd., under contract to the Irish Coast Guard (formerly the Irish Marine Emergency Service (IMES)) as medium/long-range Search and Rescue (SAR) and MedEvac helicopters. A fifth S.61N is due to be leased to the Irish Air Corps later this year (2002). This aircraft was registered on 26 June 1998. On 1 July 2002 this S.61N was assigned to the Southeastern sector, operating from Waterford. As can be seen from the c/n this is quite an elderly S.61, and in fact was the first to be assembled by Mitsubishi in Japan.
After spells on the American and Japanese civil registers, it served a long time in Britain as G-AYOM (pictured below at Aberdeen, 25 June 1998, a day before reregistration as EI-SAR ). |