In a time when large parts of the industry looks at high-tech state of the art helicopters with good performance and multi-task capacities Stocholms Helikoptertjänst got the quite revolutionary idea to break the trend and search for alternative machines. The company had grown alot since it was established in 1999, and had become an experienced aerial works operator. However mainly using the MD 500 brought weight limits that were rather frustrating. A new capable machine was indeed needed.
The founder of Stockholms Helikoptertjänst, mr Richard Ziverts, decided that a Lama would be the machine to purchase. “I simply realized that I had to buy a capable helicopter and remembered having been told that the Lama was an awesome machine” he says. “It proved to be true - a better air-lifter in that category is hard to find”. The Lama can take loads up to the double capacity of the MD 500 like a piece of cake.

Chasing Lamas
The search for a Lama started in the summer of 2004. A few Lamas were found, but it wasn’t until Ziverts spoke to the leader of Helinord AB, mr Börje Marklund, that the search gave results. The Norwegian company Airlift had a Lama that was offered for sale. A number of phone calls lead to a visit to the Airlift's base in Kinsarvik, Bergen, in early November 2004. The contracts were written on 3 and 4 November and the machine was officially purchased on 19 November. It took another 10 days before the helicopter was transported to Sweden. It was flown from Bergen to Dala Airtech in Borlänge via the Norwegian town Hamar by one of Airlift’s pilots.

Coming to Sweden
The Norwegian registration, LN-OMU, was cancelled on 3 December and after a maintenance check, an approval by the Swedish authorities and the registration process (reg. SE-JNA on 7 December) the helicopter left Borlänge for Stockhom, piloted by Austrian pilot Markus Baier together with Richard Ziverts and Tommy Hellström, on 8 December 2004.
The machine is now based at Bromma Airport in Stockhom and has become a welcome member in Stockholms Helikoptertjänst's fleet of two Hughes 300s and one MD 500.

A powerful workhorse
SE-JNA is capable of lifting up to 1.150 kg to rather high altitudes without any problems at all. Constructed back in 1983 the machine is one of the last Lamas ever built by Aérospatiale in Marginane, France. The helicopter was first registered in France as F-WXFC but was soon sold to Norway, where it came to be used for aerial works in twenty years. It is equipped with a large bubble door on the right side, which makes flying with vertical references a delight.

The helicopter was solely used for aerial work (specialised) operations. Some of the most common operations are tower mountings, power line construction, sling load transports and other long-line operations.

In 2016 Helikoptertjänst acquired an AS350B3 (SE-JRZ) and equipped it with a Maximum Visibility Window for sling-load operations. The B3 was put in service in Gothenburg with the sales company Altin Helikopter for the first 1,5 years, but it returned to the Stockholm region in mid 2018. The Lama, SE-JNA, was partially retired. It was kept as a part-time sling-load helicopter, working parallel to SE-JRZ and the AS350 SE-JTN. However, the Lama was eventually sold to Norway in March 2019. It left Sweden for Norway on 18 March 2019, after 14,3 years in Sweden.

Helikoptertjänst continued its operation with two AS350s and three EC120s.