It's a controversy that dates back to the day when Brian Mulroney was prime minister and a soon to be prime minister, Kim Campbell, Mulroney's defence minister. At the time, Campbell wanted to replace Canada's then aging Sea King anti-submarine helicopters with a costly European design, the EH-101. When Campbell's brief premiership was ended by Jean Chretien, the Liberals canceled the helicopter contract, leaving the Sea King fleet to soldier on long after their intended retirement date.
As I was sitting in my study just before noon, the house began to shake a little from the unmistakable sound of rotor blades. There, overhead and really quite low, passed a tight formation of four Sea Kings with a fifth well behind in trail. They headed north and then, several minutes later, passed by again this time heading south.
It turns out this was the farewell fly-past of these venerable CH-124 Sea Kings. They certainly have done yeoman's service with the Canadian navy since 1963. After today it's thought they'll be scrapped for parts.
A picture from your house would have been awesome if not historical😂
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ReplyDeleteYes, that's what I thought - 10 minutes after they had headed back to Pat Bay. The story of the farewell fly-past was in the morning papers but I didn't stumble across it until the event was over.
55 years in service. That's pretty amazing.
.. these historic choppers were also Coast Guard SAR
ReplyDeleteSearch and Rescue, non ? On icebreakers etc ?
Not sure why the current ie replacement choppers are single crewed
Will have to look see & catch the new vital statistics
re cost, service hours required etc, lift and two way range
and if there's a co-pilot seat even..