Video: Costa Allegra re-supply operations in the Indian Ocean

March 1, 2012 Helicopters
David Cenciotti

The following video shows the Costa Allegra re-supply operations performed by a Zil Air EC-120B helicopter (reg. S7-ZIL) from Alphonse island (located 500 km to the southwest of Mahe), on Feb. 28, 2012, at 12.14 LT.

During the same day, the Zil Air chopper performed 5 successful air drops on the Costa Concordia‘s sister ship.

The helo, shadowed by a “company traffic” (P-68C plane reg. S7-EVE), can be seen reaching the cruise ship being towed by a French oceanic tugboat and establishing a right hand racetrack to the drop zone. The chopper then perfoms a stern approach to the ship until it reaches a hover position at 15 ft and begins dropping essential communication and food supplies.

Here’s an image of the EC-120B helicopter S7-ZIL:

Image credit: Zilair

Thanks to Emiliano Guerra for the heads up.

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About David Cenciotti
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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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3 Comments

  1. Where did this notion of the Allegra and Concordia being “sister ships” crawl up from? The two are of completely different designs! Concordia is/was full 100 meters longer and carries/ed almost four times as many passengers, not to mention being purpose built as a cruise ship while Allegra is a converted container ship.

  2. Yes, the Costa Concordia is much different and larger than the Allegra but as far as I know, similar designs are referred to as twin sister ships or twin ships, and ships belonging to the same company can be called sister ships. That’s why media outlets are using this term.

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