Crippling shortage of helicopter pilots | News | News of the World
Wanted: 163 army heli pilots
By Ian Kirby
HARD-PRESSED British forces in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq may have to wait YEARS for extra helicopters—because of a crippling shortage of PILOTS.
Shock Ministry of Defence figures reveal the Army Air Corps, RAF and Royal Navy are under strength in almost every area.
Even if our forces were supplied with desperately needed extra helicopters, there would be no one to fly them since they are ALREADY short of 163 trained aircrew.
An internal report shows the biggest shortages are among pilots and crews of our Apache, Chinook, Sea King and Merlin helicopter fleets, which carry out the bulk of the work in the two war zones.
The powerful Apache gunships are vital to the war effort in Afghanistan, supporting the Paras and other hard-pressed units fighting the Taliban.
Yet the MoD's own figures show the Army Air Corps only has 93 Apache aircrew out of the 134 it needs.
That's nearly A THIRD under strength.
Insiders blame delays in training crews for the Apaches, which have been in use for three years.
Damning
There are also sky-high shortages of around 10 per cent in aircrews for the RAF's Chinooks, which supply troops, as well as the ageing Sea King and Merlin helicopter fleets.
Tory defence spokesman Liam Fox called the shortages "appalling".
He said it was a damning indictment of the government, adding: "The pilots they have are being asked to carry out tasks for which they're neither funded nor equipped."
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I know that the NoTW isn't the usual place to find "news", but are the numbers as bad as the aper makes out?