Originally Posted by
Savoia
Bristol Belvedere XG 456 of 66 Squadron based at Seletar, Singapore, recovers Westland Wessex XS 117 of 845 Naval Air Squadron
"Recovered" is a bit of a misnomer. Shortly after the photo was taken the Belvedere crew dropped the Wessex into the jungle when the load became unstable.
Edit: There's quite a story of mishaps associated with this event - as detailed in Lee Howard's book "FAA Helicopters Since 1943".
XS117 was parked overnight on a slight slope at Nanga Gaat, Sarawak. There were monsoon rains overnight and on 5 December 1963 the aircraft jumped chocks and rolled down the slope with the nose embedding itself in a tree stump. The tail pylon was removed from XS117 and on 9 December the late Nick Boyd in Wessex XP138 lifted the pylon but it gyrated and the twisted strop eventually failed and the pylon was lost in the jungle.
The engine from XS117 was removed on 11 December and dumped in a river - why I don't know. Presumably a write-off having clobbered a tree stump but why in a river?
On 15 December the Belvedere completed the saga. XS117 was only 8 months old with just 144 hours on it.