The Korea Forest Service has contracted a total of seven helicopters with a U.S. company.

All of them are former U.S. military helicopters being remanufactured and delivered for firefighting purposes. However, it has been confirmed that the Korea Forest Service failed to secure the accident histories and maintenance records from their military service days for the first, second, and third helicopters, whose aircraft have already been finalized.

The first helicopter was manufactured in the 1980s, while the second and third were produced in the 1960s.

Initially, the Korea Forest Service explicitly stated in its bidding proposal that the aircraft must have no history of accidents such as crashes or rollovers and must acquire proper certification.

However, during a business trip to the United States in February of last year, even after confirming firsthand that the pre-conversion accident history records were missing, no particular measures were taken.

Only after SBS began its reporting did they belatedly receive a response from the U.S. Department of Defense through the company, which also lacked specific accident histories, aircraft status, and maintenance history information from their military service period.

The Korea Forest Service maintains its stance that it is difficult to secure records from the military era, but there will be no problem because repairs and other work are conducted during the conversion process.

[Kim Man-ju / Head of the Aerial Forest Firefighting Headquarters: "(Military helicopters) that are in such poor condition that they cannot be brought into the civilian sector and remain as they are do not happen (because they are remanufactured)."]

However, experts point out that it is difficult to guarantee safety based solely on the information secured by the Korea Forest Service, making the possibility of obtaining "certification" slim.

[Choi Yong-hoon / Head of the Aviation Certification Division, Korea Institute of Aviation Safety Technology: "(To use a car as an example), if this car is a vehicle with a history of flood damage, you would end up driving the car carrying uncertainties where you never know where a problem might arise."]

While the delivery deadline for the first helicopter has been extended by a year and a half to June of next year (2027), the deadline for the second helicopter is the end of November this year (2026). With less than three months left, accident history and certification issues remain unresolved.

The company also stated, "It is not easy to meet the delivery deadline," adding, "We may have to pay delayed performance penalties and postpone the delivery."

Despite this situation, the Korea Forest Service expanded the scale of the project in January of this year (2026), signing a contract to additionally introduce four extra-large helicopters, from the fourth to the seventh, with the same company.

The contract amount alone reaches approximately 200 billion won.

The problem is that the company's capability to fulfill the contract is also in question.

Following the package contract for four units, the company has failed to pay a performance deposit of about 10 billion won.

Although the Korea Forest Service extended the payment deadline until July of this year (2026), it remains unpaid.

[Kang Doo-won / Attorney (National Contracts and Aviation Industry): "(The extension of the payment deadline) can be seen as preferential treatment. Because in domestic transactions, you pay the contract deposit immediately after signing the contract, whether in the form of a guarantee or cash."]

The company explained that the payment is being delayed because the size of the deposit has increased, denying that it is preferential treatment.

Pre-conversion History Unknown... Additional Contract Signed for 200 Billion Won Worth of Helicopters (September 17, 2026, 8 News)

(Reported by: Jang Min-sung, Production: Yoon Sung-shik, Video Reporting: Seol Min-hwan, Video Editing: Lee Hong-myung, Design: Taeyoung Park & Junho Lee, PD: Kim Do-kyun & Han Seung-ho, XR: Choi Jae-young & Park Cheon-woong, VJ: Kim Jun-ho, Data provided by: Office of Representative Yoon Jun-byeong, Video provided by: Columbia Helicopters YouTube, YouTube & SNS sources: Jarasum Yeonggu, Jirisan Sancheong Living, Bicha and Naltle, Film Master, Produced by: SBS Digital News)