Picture credit: Lenn Bayliss and Gary Wilkinson Photography
Operated by McDermott Aviation, the Bell214ST and Bell214B helicopters arrived on the Silk Way West Airlines B747-8F at Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport in Queensland yesterday (Wednesday 18 October) morning.
The charter flight was carried out in collaboration with Menzies Aviation and freight forwarder Cargo Connect Global Logistics.
Chapman Freeborn had transported the helicopters to Greece two years ago using an Antonov AN-124 where they assisted with tackling wildfires in the Euboea, Peloponnese and Attica regions.
Michael Amson, VP – Australia at Chapman Freeborn says the team have been working with McDermott Aviation for over three years, breaking records and setting benchmarks.
He says, “If you said to a regular commercial airline that you need to load even just one unit, 8 metres in length, onto a PMC pallet with overhang on all sides, the answer would be a straight ‘no’. Yet, here we are showing that it can be done, by having six helicopter fuselages loaded consecutively onto the world’s longest widebody freighter aircraft.”
The B747-8F was greeted in Toowoomba with a ceremonial water salute performed by two fire engines on the runway.