CHC Helicopter is a large, global helicopter company specialising in a variety of services including search & rescue (SAR), emergency medical evacuations, transport to remote (shore or off-shore) oil and gas plants, corporate transportation, flight training and maintenance to name a few.
Headquartered in British Columbia, Canada - CHC Helicopter has a number of subsidaries throughout the world including CHC Helicopter Australia which is based in Adelaide and currently the largest provider of emergency medical helicopter services in the country.
CHC Helicopter Australia also supports a number other services encompassing a variety of Defence, Police and Fire & Rescue contracts.
The current defence contract held is to provide dedicated SAR support for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) meaning Sikorsky S-76A helicopters employed for the job are reguarly tasked to be on standby at or near a location where fast jet or trainer aircraft (eg Pilatus PC-9) activity is being undertaken.
An example of this occurred on Monday, April 04, when F/A-18 Hornets from No.77 Squadron of RAAF Base Williamtown near Newcastle, NSW, were conducting exercises off the coast near Bundaberg and CHC Helicopter Sikorsky S-76A VH-LAH was tasked to be on standby in case of an incident.
Coincidently while Air Queensland.blogspot was in the area, the most convenient location to temporarily base themselves was Bundaberg Airport, with the chopper flying from, and later back to RAAF Base Amberley near Ipswich, SE Queensland.
