gruntie
29th Sep 2010, 19:17
As a nipper in Feb 1962 we travelled on board the Warwick Castle from Mombasa to Durban. I dug out the old colour slides recently for the first time in godknowshowmanyyears, and found these two of a couple of Sabena S58s sitting on the wharf at…..Beira?
I don’t remember seeing them at the time but I can’t think where else it could have been – although the short section of railway track visible in one pic seems suspiciously wide-of-gauge for Africa. God knows what they were doing there, presumably something to do with events in the Congo.
http://i53.tinypic.com/1537k2q.jpg
http://i56.tinypic.com/2a0nfhs.jpg
Tankertrashnav
29th Sep 2010, 19:38
Mozambique railways are 3'6" gauge, gruntie, and that could be right, judging by the guys standing by the track who help give the picture scale. So it could be Beira, but absolutely no idea about the S58s though!
Sultan Ismail
30th Sep 2010, 02:56
I'm going to take a flier on this one.
The aircraft shown in detail is a Sikorsky S58C reg OO-SHG "loaned" by Sabena Airlines to the Belgian military for service in Katanga province in the Belgian Congo, later called Zaire etc etc.
They were on loan from 1960 to 1962 and these pictures would be the repatriation to Europe. Check your charts and you'll see Beira is a safe way to get out of the Southern Congo, just follow the Zambesi to the sea :)
forget
30th Sep 2010, 08:23
Life History. Helicopter Accidents - Helicopter Database (http://www.helis.com/database/accidents/?org=249)
I remembered this as part of Sabena stuff I sent to 'regle'.
OO-SHG : Sikorsky S-58C, c/n 58-324, ff?; del Sabena NV at the Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. plant, Bridgeport, CT, 18Jul56; del by French aircraft carrier "Dixmude" at Algiers ferried Algiers-Oran-Alicante-Barcelona-Perpignan-Tours-Paris-Brussel (Capt. A.Vernieuwe), 14Sep56; arrived at Brussel-Groendreef, 04Oct56; registered OO-SHG (CofR 1091) Sabena NV, Brussel, 08Oct56; inaugural service to Paris-Issy (Capt. L.De Villenfagne), 03Mar57; tail broke off at Brussel in unknown circumstances, 17Aug57; evacuated personnel during fire in the control tower at Brussel-Zaventem (Capt. G.Tremerie), 04Nov57; incident, fell on its side, was repaired, 09Jul60; transferred to the Congo for operations in Katanga (KAT43, registration was not carried on the aircraft), 27Sep60; returned to Brussels, Dec62; modification work carried out by Sabena for sale to the Belgian Air Force, Jan63; cancelled from the Belgian Civil Register, 21Oct63; taken on charge Belgian Air Force, Heli Flight, Koksijde, call-sign B9/OT-ZKI, 21Oct63; del Heli Flight, Koksijde (Flight SRT - Short Range Transport) (tt 5057 hrs), Apr64; cat.5 - after only 5 months of service the aircraft experienced serious engine problems a few minutes after take-off from Koksijde. The aircraft made a heavy landing in the vicinity of the control tower. The damage was such that the aircraft was writen-off. Crew : Lt. Bawin, Vaandrig P.Segers, 1SM L.Janssens, 1SM Dekinder, all ok, 21Sep64; w/o, wreck transferred to Evere, 240964.