Iranian technicians carry out overhauls on 6 mothballed helicopters
Iranian technicians have successfully carried out repairs on engines of six French helicopters to bring them back to operation despite foreign sanctions that ban the imports of aircraft parts into the country.
Iran Helicopter Company (Heliran) said on Sunday that overhauls carried out on Turbomeca Artouste engines of Aérospatiale Alouette III helicopters made them airworthy again after years of downtime that had been caused by US sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector.
Iran’s transportation minister Mohammad Eslami personally visited the repaired choppers in Heliran hangars in an area to the west of the capital Tehran, according to local media reports.
Eslami said the light utility helicopters would now be able return to service, including for ambulance operations, as they have obtained the required certificates from Iran’s civil aviation authority.
Heliran CEO Soheil Qiassi said that the overhauls would extend the airworthiness of the choppers by 1,500 hours.
Qiassi said the company finished the overhauls while it was unable to receive even a single spare part from foreign suppliers because of the sanctions.
He said the helicopters would enable rescue and emergency services in Iran to expand their operations to hard-to-reach regions of the country.
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