VIH To Transport Helicopters By An-124

VIH S-61 helicopters

Canadian company, VIH Helicopters, has won a six-month contract to provide helicopters in Angola in the run-up to the national elections to be held on September 5th. These will be the first elections in the country for 16 years.

VIH will be providing six of the total of thirty helicopters being contracted to fly international observers around the country and, unusually, will also be used as mobile polling stations to service offshore oil platforms and remote areas.

VIH is providing two Sikorsky S-61s, two Sikorsky S-92s, a Bell 212 and a Eurocopter EC135. They will be transported by Antonov An-124 with three or four being loaded into one aircraft depending on the combinations chosen.

VIH Astar

Although more costly than surface transport, chartering the Antonov An-124 to carry high value assets such as helicopters between contracts in different parts of the world is commonplace as it dramatically reduces both the time they are out of service and the amount of engineering breakdown and preparation required.