330 Skvadron at Bodø
Located within the Arctic Circle, Bodø airfield is surrounded by sea, mountains and fjords, and experiences the strongest winds in Norway. It’s an environment fraught with danger for the aviators of 330 Skvadron, as Neil Dunridge discovered.
Responsibility for search and rescue (SAR) within the Luftforsvaret (Royal Norwegian Air Force, RNoAF) falls to 330 Skvadron, which operates 12 Westland Sea King Mk43B helicopters across two Joint Rescue Coordination Centres (JRCCs) and five bases overseeing the north and south of the country: Bodø and Banak cover JRCC North while Sola, Ørland and Rygge cover JRCC South.
Two Sea Kings are located at each of the five bases and operate under 139 Air Wing, controlled from Bardufoss.
Headquartered at Sola, 330 Skv is headed by a squadron leader, with each base unit led by a unit commander. Maj Peer-Johan Ødegaard – who flew 1,000 hours on the F-16 before transitioning to, and accruing 1,500 hours on, the Sea King over six years – is Bodø’s unit commander.
Despite its advancing years, the Sea King is still an extremely capable SAR platform and will serve until the AW101 Merlin Mk612 is fully introduced to frontline service between 2019 and 2021. Maj …
