Police wings clipped
Helicopters grounded – one for second year in a row – as mandatory service missed
THE only two police helicopters deployed in the Nelson Mandela Bay area have been grounded with just days to go before the festive season gets into full swing – because police management failed to send them for a routine service.
This is the second year in a row that one of the helicopters – the Port Elizabeth air wing’s BO-105 – has been grounded ahead of the Bay’s busiest period.
Under aviation law, all helicopters must be serviced after every 100 hours of flying time.
But police officers in the air wing said the BO-105 and a smaller helicopter, the twoseater Robinson R44, had been grounded as they had missed their compulsory 100hour services.
Provincial police bosses said yesterday: “The chopper has gone for the 100-hour service.”
Despite The Herald’s sending several queries to provincial commissioner Major-General Cynthia Binta, her office declined to comment any further. Binta’s spokesman, Lieutenant Khaya Tonjeni, could not say what measures had been put in place in the event of an emergency that required air support.
The Port Elizabeth air wing is mandated to serve the entire Nelson Mandela Bay district as well as surrounding areas as far as Humansdorp, Port Alfred and Graaff-Reinet.
At the start of the festive season last year, the BO-105 was grounded as officials had failed to send it for a mandatory inspection. The bungle was later attributed to lengthy logistical procedures that needed to be signed off by Pretoria police bosses.
In March, the Robinson R44 joined the air wing fleet.
University of South Africa criminal justice and police lecturer Prof Rudolph Zinn called for national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega to investigate the groundings, which he said were a “serious concern”.
“It is clear there is a managerial problem. For the exact same dilemma to occur for a second year just shows that there is a problem within the Eastern Cape police.
“There is simply no excuse for this. It is blatant mismanagement. The national commissioner needs to intervene and find out what is actually happening in the province,” he said.
“Each province must submit a festive season holiday plan to the national office and each plan includes the back-up of a chopper. Helicopters are vital to track getaway vehicles and assist with back-up when officers are being attacked.
“It is vital for officers on the ground to have an eye in the sky so that in the event of a cash in transit or shopping mall robbery, they don’t run blindly into an ambush and get confronted with heavily armed robbers waiting for them,” Zinn said.