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RICHMOND, B.C. — Shortly after Russia attacked Ukraine almost three years ago Danny Sitnam allowed a Ukrainian couple and their baby to stay in his family’s cottage.
Sitnam, who’s the CEO of helicopter service Helijet, said Monday that during that time they have become friends with the family and those at Maple Hope Foundation, a group that has provided help to Ukrainians since 2014.
It’s what started the idea rolling to donate a fully operational medical helicopter for humanitarian use in Ukraine, he said.
“It’s really important in the sense of giving back to such a desperate situation that’s going on in the Ukraine,” Sitnam said.
Helijet said in a statement it has agreed with “a consortium of Canadian and Ukrainian non-governmental organizations” to deliver the Sikorsky air ambulance, which was previously contracted to the B.C. Ministry of Health.
“We just felt it was the right thing to do to see if we could support it in a bigger way, and eventually this came to the culmination of giving an aircraft and supporting wounded soldiers and so forth,” said Sitnam.
He said the whole project will cost between $500,000 and a million dollars.
Sitnam said his family felt compelled to further contribute after spending time with the Ukrainian family.
“Supporting them was just the start of a commitment we made at Helijet to help Maple Hope Foundation as the unrelenting struggle with Russia continues for the people of Ukraine,” he said while standing in front of the helicopter draped with both the Canadian and Ukrainian flags.
The Sikorsky S-76A is a fully equipped air medical helicopter that Helijet had previously provided under contract to B.C.’s Ministry of Health for patient transport, and while it has recently been taken out of service, the statement says the chopper still has years of flight capability remaining.
Sitnam said the helicopter will be dismantled and driven to Calgary, where it will be loaded onto a 747 cargo aircraft and flown to Luxembourg.
The helicopter will be transported on the ground to Kyiv, Ukraine, and is expected to be put into use by March 15.
Svitlana Kominko, co-founder and CEO, Maple Hope Foundation, said her foundation started a crowdfunding campaign to help facilitate the donation by raising more than $100,000 to move the aircraft to Ukraine.
Helijet and Maple Hope Foundation have also been working with the group Unite with Ukraine for more than eight months to arrange the shipment of the helicopter.
Kominko said she received overwhelming feedback from the Ukrainian community when she shared the news with them.
“Wow, a helicopter, next it will be a spaceship,” laughed Kominko.
Kominko said this donation will save lives and it sends out a strong message to the people of Ukraine that while these people are far away, “they care, and they want to help.”
She said it’s also a good reminder to people that the war isn’t over, Russia continues its attacks on villages, residential buildings, schools and hospitals.
Kominko was recently in Ukraine to visit her mother and said people are still dying.
“They are killed in their beds … every day we were in Ukraine in December, the sirens are every day and you have to hide, and you need to find a place, and your heart, your mind isn’t at peace,” she said.
Maple Hope Foundation and Helijet hosted two pilots and two engineers from Ukraine in November for flight and maintenance training in preparation for the helicopter’s move to Ukraine.
Helijet said in a statement that the helicopter will be delivered on the condition that it is used solely for non-commercial, humanitarian, and medical evacuation missions for airlifting people needing urgent medical attention.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 10, 2025.
Nono Shen, The Canadian Press