Broken down helicopter, European after-sales service

(BRUXELLES2) What to do when you have a broken down helicopter on board a ship along the Somali coast? The captain of HLMNS Van Amstel was quite annoyed. Monday his helicopter, Lynx, had to make an emergency landing, due to a leak in the hydraulic circuit. And without a helicopter on board a frigate, the hunt for pirates becomes a bit of a blind hunt... Even more the surveillance of the coasts, its mission.

The solution was found with a bit of cunning and the solidarity of his European counterparts engaged in the Eunavfor Atalanta operation. A soldier from Djibouti Logistics FHQ went to the Netherlands to get the part. Once back, it was loaded into a maritime patrol plane, the Spanish P3 Orion, which dropped it at sea. It was up to the Dutch sailors to recover the part. Apparently successfully. The flight engineer was very happy to be able to put everything back in place. In the meantime, it is the German ship's helicopter of the FGS Berlin which brought various materials and equipment while the French command ship, the FS Marne, supplied it with fuel... Phew!

The pirate camps now just have to behave themselves. The Dutch have resumed their mission of surveillance of the coast, or even more... More offensive actions are now being studied very concretely...