PH-HHC SNIAS AS.355-F1 Twin Star c/n 5049 - Heli-Holland - heliport Emmen, Holland - 24 February 2006

The Eurocopter AS.355 is a twin-engined light utility helicopter that can accommodate up to 7 passengers. Development of the Ecureuil started in the early 70s under the Aérospatiale banner with the single-engined AS 350. The first flight of an Aerospatiale AS-350 took place on 27 June 1994. A twin-engine version of the AS350, the AS-355 Ecureuil 2 flew first on 28 September 1979. The Eucureuil 2 entered production as the AS-355E. The AS-355F with a higher max takeoff weight replaced the AS-355E early 1982 in production. The AS-355F was followed by the AS-355F-1 in January 1984 and AS-355F-2 in December 1985. The AS-355 Ecureuil 2 is marketed in North America as the "TwinStar". The helicopter divisions of MBB from Germany and Aerospatiale from France merged in January 1992 to form the Eurocopter Group.

The SNIAS AS355 F1 Twin Star s/n 5049 was built in 1981 and registered N357E in the USA as an Aérospatiale AS-355E Twin Star on 23 December 1981. After the registration N357E was cancelled on 19 February 1988, the helicopter was registered I-VIEY in Italy by Eli Alpi on 9 June 1988 as an AS.355-F1 Ecureuil 2. In 1997 the helicopter was sold to Heli-Holland and arrived in non-flying condition in February 1997 as I-VIEY in Emmen. On 21 February 1997, the registration PH-HHC was reserved and the helicopter was registered with Heli-Holland Holding B.V., Emmer-Compascuum, on 18 November 1997. The PH-HHC is operated by Heli-Holland since, first based at Hato AB near Willemstad, Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles. At Hato the PH-HHC was operated for the Dutch Navy / Koninklijke Marine until it was replaced in April 2005 by the PH-HVH. The PH-HHC returned to the Netherlands where the machine went through a total makeover and became as good as new when it was ready. The maintenance is carried out by Heli Holland Technics at the Heli-Holland heliport in Emmer-Erfscheidenveen near Emmen.