VH-CSI Bell
47G-3B-1
(v/n 6504)
The
ability of Bell 47s to recover from accidents is legendary.
. VH-CSI was badly damaged
during a forced landing in the Northern Territory on 17 Apri 1988 when
the main rotor severed
the tail boom. Two
months later to the day, and back cattle mustering, –CSI crashed into
trees
when the pilot could not stop it rotating. Again it
was resurrected and was eventually retired
in
2008 . It was with Heli-Muster when David Carter
photographed it in 1982 at Bankstown.
-CSI first came on to the Australian register
in March 1966 with PNG based Crowley Airways.
It was sold to
Airfast-Helicopter Utilities and sent to its Indonesia operation as
PK-OAI in 1974.
When it returned in 1981 for Heli-Muster its
construction number was shown as BK817.