Last Fling for Belgian Sea Kings

摘要

The Belgian Defence -Air Component has bid farewell to its last operational Westland Sea King Mk48 at Koksijde Air Base. No.40 Smaldeel operated the helicopter for 43 years with its main task being search and rescue (SAR), but also the transport of patients and organs to hospitals. In 1974, Belgium procured five Sea Kings, with serials RS01-RS05, to replace five Sikorsky HSS-1s and seven S-58Cs. The new helicopters were delivered in 1976, completing almost 60,000 flight hours and carrying out 3,309 SAR missions, saving 1,757 lives. The last operational mission was flown on March 10, when RS05 was planned to fly a last, regular training sortie, but had to scramble for a SAR operation at Westerschelde, the Netherlands.