defenceWeb
Written by Guy Martin -
An SAPS Ecureuil helicopter.
Of the South African Police Service (SAPS) Air Wing’s 34 aircraft, only 15 are operational and the rest are undergoing maintenance or grounded after incidents.
This is according to the reply to a parliamentary question posed by the Democratic Alliance’s Annette Steyn. Minister of Police Bheki Cele replied that 17 aircraft are undergoing mandatory periodic inspection and two aircraft are grounded for investigation purposes, after a crash and a hard landing respectively. An SAPS Squirrel helicopter crash-landed at Virginia Airport in August 2019 during an exercise. The aircraft ended up on its side.