Canada's CH-47C

 

 

         
Canadian CH-47C Chinook helicopter 147007 preparing to lift a PBY aircraft near Goosebay, Newfoundland.

          Canadian CH-47C Chinook helicopter 147007. Click-N-Go Here to view a larger image.

 

 

             On 1 October 1957, CF-HFL was returning to Goose Bay, Labrador, after supplying diesel fuel to an isolated communications site. Suddenly, about 50 miles out both engines started to fail, the port engine rapidly gave out followed by the starboard just as a suitable lake was found. The plane crashed through treetops, bounced off a marsh then struggled back six feet into the air until her starboard wing struck a small copse of pines. This caused the aircraft to slew around in a violent way turning the aircraft into the direction it had just come. The crew spent a long night in the woods and was rescued the following day by a floatplane. Due to damage caused by the crash, the aircraft was written off and stripped of any usable parts and the airframe was left. In early 1986 the aircraft, then owned by airline pilot Captain Lionel Clark, was offered to the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum, located at Halifax International Airport, in Bedford, Nova Scotia.

         
The unit patch of 450 Squadron.
   After much coordination, 450 Squadron, then located in Ottawa, was tasked to retrieve the wreckage as part of some heavy lift sling load training. Notice the long-line sling attached between the two aircraft. Copilot Tony Snieder , fresh out of flight school and piloting 147007, stated:

             "We got the mission authorized as heavy lift training. Just after that picture was taken (above), we started the lift, but with all the water in the airplane we had to hover overhead for about 30 minutes to drain the water to be able to lift it. We calculated how much torque we would be need to hover out of ground effect at 50,000 lbs., pulled that much, (and no more to ensure we didn't overgross the aircraft) and it barely moved, but started draining water, again about 30 minutes later the aircraft slowly started to lift and once off the ground, and a little forward airspeed away we went, at about 30 knots. Anything faster and the PBY started flying" (right).
Canadian CH-47C Chinook helicopter 147007 transporting a PBY aircraft near Goosebay, Newfoundland.

 

 

          Related Information

 

          Read about the Iranian Chinooks

          View the Unit Patches

          147-003 Mishap Report

 

 

          The CH-47 - 40 years old and still circling the world.

         

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