KLM Helikopters N.V. was a Dutch civil helicopter operator founded in 1965, and was wholly owned subsidiary of

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...

History

Also known as KLM Noordzee Helikopters the company provided offshore support flights,

charters A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

, and

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

. Their fleet consisted of seven

Sikorsky S-61N The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the SH-3 Sea King military helicopter. It was developed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. The commercial version of the Sea King was developed during the ...

's, four

Sikorsky S-76B The Sikorsky S-76 is a medium-size commercial utility helicopter designed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. It is the company's first helicopter specifically developed for the civilian market. The S-76 w ...

's, two

Sikorsky S-58T The Sikorsky H-34 "Choctaw" (company designation S-58) is an American piston-engined military helicopter originally designed by Sikorsky as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft for the United States Navy. It has seen extended use when ad ...

's and two

MBB Bo 105 The Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo 105 is a light, twin-engine, multi-purpose helicopter developed by Bölkow of Ottobrunn, West Germany. It was the first light twin-engine helicopter in the world, and the first rotorcraft that could perform a ...

's. In 1991 the company expanded when Era Helicopters a division of

Era Aviation Era Aviation was a fixed wing airline as well as a commercial helicopter operation based in Anchorage, Alaska, United States. It operated a network of scheduled fixed wing passenger services from Anchorage as well as from Bethel, AK on behalf of ...

acquire a 49% of KLM, and provided them with growth in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

region. until the company was sold to

Schreiner Airways Schreiner Airways was a charter, passenger and cargo airline based in the Netherlands. History Schreiner was an offshore helicopter operator which was founded in 1945. The various flight operations were split amongst several companies of the Sch ...

in 1998.

Fleet

KLM Helikopters operated the following helicopter types:

Accidents

*On May 10, 1974 KLM Noordzee Helikopters

PH-NZC crashed en route to an oil rig in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. None of the two crew and four passengers survived. The probable cause was a failure in one of five rotor blades due to

metal fatigue In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striations on some parts o ...

. *On December 29, 1990, a

was in a hover when serious vibrations were experienced. After touchdown one of the main rotor blades struck the fuselage and detached before the engines were shut down, no injuries were reported.

References

{{Airlines of the Netherlands Defunct airlines of the Netherlands Airlines established in 1965 Airlines disestablished in 1998 Defunct helicopter airlines

History

Fleet

Accidents

See also

References