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Chretien refused to fly on a Sea King?

casing

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I recently received a report that contained an "interesting anecdote" about Jean Chretien.   I have no idea as to the authenticity of this, but I suspect there is at least some truth.   Just wondering if this is a true and well-known incident.

Interesting anecdote about Jean Chretien visiting HMCS Vancouver off of Hawaii mid 2001 (he must have wanted a vacation).   Apparently the battle group was outside of Sea King range, so Jean flew into the U.S.S. John Stennis on a U.S. plane.   The Vancouver sent a Sea King to ferry Chretien to the ship, but Jean refused to fly on a Sea King and took a US (Sikorsky) helicopter.

That's only about a third of the story, but it's the part I'm interested in.   The way it sounds, as presented, is that Chretien didn't trust the safety of the Sea King.   The actual reason behind it might be more innocent than that, but somehow I doubt it.   Just another example of his hypocritical attitude.
 
I can find the rest of the story on another board I go to.   The pilot of the Sea King refused to eat with the PM and was relieved IIRC.  

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=014710

Here is the link.
 
I got a comment on this article, the haul down system doesn't exactly work like that.   The helo drops a messenger line to the ship, then hauls up the main cable and the ship pulls the helo down.   The bear trap itself grabs a hold of the probe on the helo to hold it to the deck. This story was on the pilot forum too, talk there has it that the PM was never supposed to fly on the Sea King and the Det comd was never relieved of command.   If the American's insisted on using the haul down system, it's because they would never land on a ship the size of our Frigates without it, they think we're crazy for doing it on a regular basis. Always be leery of the media, controversy sells. If there isn't controversy, they make it up.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/07/30/Arts/convoy040730.html

HAHAHA, they changed the caption under the picture of the low vis flag.   They had some stupid comment about how "even the Cdn flag is camouflaged". Well I sent in a nasty-gram explaining that it's a low vis flag and is actually pretty common kit and in no way is meant to hide the fact that we're Cdn. I love the media, morons.

Cheers
 
Michael Dorosh said:
I can find the rest of the story on another board I go to.  The pilot of the Sea King refused to eat with the PM and was relieved IIRC. 

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=014710

Here is the link.

Micahel,

  Gotta say, I love the avatar.  Plaid ninjas..  Must have trained in north Japan or Seattle in the early 90's, right?  :)  However, in regards to this particular story, I was unable to locate any official story from the Ottawa Sun...  Is there perhaps another newspaper it may have appeared in?  Thanks, Michael.
 
This story about PM Chretien refusing to fly in a Sea King is completely false and probably lower deck scuttle butt. Art Eggleton was Minister of National Defence and visited RIMPAC 2002. He was scheduled to be flown out to the USS Abraham Lincoln. Initially he was to use an RCAF Sea King. However, there were several others making the trip and Canadian Sea Kings can only carry two passengers as they are kitted out for operations. Several stripped out H-6's were tasked at RIMPAC to move people and gear to the fleet and could carry more than a dozen people. I was there. I arranged for a commemorative gift for the Minister and saw him board the Helo. To my knowledge from 1991 to 2012 Chretien never visited RIMPAC ever. There was no slight to Canada, the Sea King, the RCN or the RCAF.
 
Must be.

And it is factually incorrect, to boot.

Sea Kings carried 3 pax. Always.

I have no knowledge about Art Eggleton at RIMPAC 2002, but I certainly carried him in a Sea King to a ship in the Arabian Sea that same year…
 
Must be.

And it is factually incorrect, to boot.

Sea Kings carried 3 pax. Always.

I have no knowledge about Art Eggleton at RIMPAC 2002, but I certainly carried him in a Sea King to a ship in the Arabian Sea that same year…
Correct information is that the Sea King could not accommodate the passenger list. Bishop 22 was the bird with RIMPAC. Later in the exercise it ditched and HMAS Adelaide took the crew off who didn't get their feet wet, before the helo tipped and sank.
 
Correct information is that the Sea King could not accommodate the passenger list. Bishop 22 was the bird with RIMPAC. Later in the exercise it ditched and HMAS Adelaide took the crew off who didn't get their feet wet, before the helo tipped and sank.
That was RIMPAC 2000.

And no- The crew of 422 spent time in the raft before the RAN arrived on scene. I have the pictures to prove it/know everyone on that crew.

You are batting zero, today.
 
Only refusal I know of (and personally witnessed) was David Collenette refusing to take an SK from YVR to YYJ during the 1994 Commonwealth Games.
 
You're right I was not at RIMPAC 2002. I did 2000 and 2004 Here is the picture of them in the RHIB.

delivery1.jpg
 
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Only refusal I know of (and personally witnessed) was David Collenette refusing to take an SK from YVR to YYJ during the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

Um... I can't say I blame him

AF1QipMYFJKnPVDnO8QPHIniyXDX3z-jm1jlSlw6gPNK=s1360-w1360-h1020


After all, the competition has a bar ;)
 
Um... I can't say I blame him

AF1QipMYFJKnPVDnO8QPHIniyXDX3z-jm1jlSlw6gPNK=s1360-w1360-h1020


After all, the competition has a bar ;)
Yeah…he eventually went that way, but not before he f’d off the SK crew. The back story was this was a few months after the crash of STINGER 25 just outside Saint John on the way home to Victoria and death of the two pilots. Poor form, I’d say. If he was going to refuse, they should have just planned for him to take a HeliJet flight.
 
Do you see the deflated raft in the front of the RHIB?
The orange fabric. At the time I was told they stepped right into the RHIB. Was up very early next day speaking to Canadian media starting in Halifax. I was aboard Lincoln for the day when the event happened. Commodore MacMillan was the Canadian SOA. Was able to have instant communications with MARPAC..
 
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Yeah…he eventually went that way, but not before he f’d off the SK crew. The back story was this was a few months after the crash of STINGER 25 just outside Saint John on the way home to Victoria and death of the two pilots. Poor form, I’d say. If he was going to refuse, they should have just planned for him to take a HeliJet flight.

Did he earn a special callsign as a result of his cowardice like, you know: 'Chickenshit6' ;)
 
Did he earn a special callsign as a result of his cowardice like, you know: 'Chickenshit6' ;)
He certainly did amongst the dudes with beards I was flying, and when I next swung by 443, there weren’t many positive words about him.
 
That was RIMPAC 2000.

And no- The crew of 422 spent time in the raft before the RAN arrived on scene. I have the pictures to prove it/know everyone on that crew.

You are batting zero, today.
I was OOW in Pro that day. The crew was definitely in a raft when the Aussies fished them out of the water.
 
The orange fabric. At the time I was told they stepped right into the RHIB. Was up very early next day speaking to Canadian media starting in Halifax. I was aboard Lincoln for the day when the event happened. Commodore MacMillan was the Canadian SOA. Was able to have instant communications with MARPAC..
Nope. They stepped directly into the life raft that they deployed from the cargo door (a bit of a no-no). Some minutes later, the Aussies showed up and fished them out of the ocean with a RHIB.
 
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