Derbyshire Police Press Release
The North Midlands Helicopter Support Unit, the Consortium of Police Forces of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, has now gone operational with the new EC135T2 helicopter.
The aircraft is one of the most advanced twin engine helicopters used by UK police forces. It is the 300th EC135 to come off Eurocopter's assembly line in Germany. The aircraft has full stabilisation and autopilot, features that become very important when operating at night in poor weather, especially over the Derbyshire Peaks.
The benefits of the new helicopter over the previous Aerospatial 355N model include:
Flying to a maximum of 140 knots (150 mph), this is an increase of 10 mph.
It has longer endurance, being able to stay in flight for around two hours.
Reduced down time for servicing.
Improved and advanced technology in police role equipment.
Casualties can be carried easier, with a stretcher being permanently carried on board.
Instrument landing systems, which allow the autopilot to guide the helicopter to an airfield in the event of inadvertent entry into cloud.
The helicopter cost just in excess of £3.1m. The Home Office assisted by providing a grant and with the sale of the old helicopter, each police force only had to fund around £750K.
The new police role equipment includes the latest FLIR Ultraforce 2 Plus airborne camera systems. This is three cameras fitted into a pod at the front of the helicopter. It boasts a broadcast quality colour TV camera with a 52 x zoom capability. A new innovative camera called a spotter scope supplements this. The spotter scope allows long-range observation with a 94 x zoom colour or black and white camera. The third camera is an improved thermal image camera, which has greater clarity and additional fields of view compared to its' predecessor. The images are extremely clear allowing the helicopter crew to more easily identify a heat source.
The aircraft has a new Skyforce Observer Mark 2 moving map system. The map shows a 'cone', which depicts exactly where the camera is pointing. A Tracker vehicle location system also interfaces with the moving map. A 'ladder' impression appears on the map, with coloured bars denoting the signal strength and direction. This has improved the speed in which stolen vehicles with Tracker can be located. Within the first week of operations with the new helicopter, the crew recovered a stolen generator and a high value BMW car.
The searchlight on the aircraft has gyroscopes allowing a much steadier beam. The light can be 'slaved' to the camera turret so both camera and searchlight are immediately observing the same target.
Although the police helicopter does not have a primary role to evacuate casualties, during the first six years of operations the old helicopter airlifted 42 casualties when an air ambulance was not available. The new helicopter has rear 'clamshell' doors allowing easier and quicker loading of the stretcher.
During the first few days of operation of the EC135, an injured man with life threatening head injuries was airlifted from Centre Parcs in Nottinghamshire to the Queens Medical Centre. There were grave concerns for his life and the police helicopter was asked to provide fast evacuation to hospital. The journey was completed in five minutes.
The old AS355N helicopter had come into service for the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Forces in April 1998. It was built in 1991 and had been used by the Dyfed Powys Police until it was bought by the Consortium with Home Office Grant. It had just less than 3000 hours on the airframe in 1998 and flew a further 5000 hours for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire attending to almost 15,000 tasks.
During that time the crews were involved in the direct arrests of 988 suspects for crime. These are incidents where had the helicopter not attended, it is believed the suspects would have escaped from the police officers on the ground.
There were a further 1139 suspects arrested for crime, which were recorded as assists. These were where the helicopter assisted the ground police officers to effect arrests.
The helicopter located an additional 1070 suspects but the police did not arrest them. In the majority of cases they were eliminated as suspects, saving valuable police time in negative enquiries.
"The aircraft is one of the most advanced twin engine helicopters used by UK police forces."
Is it?
If not, which is?