The helicopter that crashed on Sunday killing
all six on board was flown all the way from South Africa, it emerged on
Thursday.
Kenya Police Airwing commandant
Rodgers Mbithi said he flew the chopper from South Africa — through Mozambique
and Tanzania — last December.
He was accompanied by an engineer and
another pilot, both from the manufacturer, Eurocopter Southern Africa.
They left South Africa on December 5
and arrived in Kenya two days later after making stop-overs in Mozambique and
Dar es Salaam, where it was refuelled.
It had been assembled in South Africa
and sold directly to the government.
The acquisition of the new aircraft
was part of a plan by the Police Force to expand its airborne law enforcement
and crime prevention unit.
It also emerged that the police
initially wanted to buy a Bell 407 helicopter and it was not clear why they
settled for the Eurocopter AS350B3e.
The acquisition of the AS350 B3e,
which is the enhanced version of the AS350 model, is said to have followed an
open and competitive tender won earlier this year by Eurocopter Southern Africa
(Pty) Ltd.
The Bell 407, a four-blade,
single-engine chopper, is manufactured by Bell Helicopter Textron Company of
Canada. The plane started being used in 1996.
It has a capacity of seven passengers
with additional space for cargo and costs between $2.6 million (Sh221 million)
and $3 million (Sh255 million).
The Kenya Wildlife Services has
purchased a Bell 407.
Round the clock security
Mr Mbithi said that the airwing, based
at Hangar 27 at Wilson Airport in Nairobi, is usually guarded round the clock.
He said that the aircraft are locked
inside the hangar with armed officers keeping watch outside.
“The airport is a relatively safe
place but we lock our planes inside the hangar since they may be pushed by
strong winds and get damaged,” said the commandant.
The unit is also poorly equipped — out
of its eight helicopters, five are unserviceable, and of the seven Cessna fixed
wing aircraft, four are unserviceable.
It currently has 10 helicopter pilots,
13 fixed wing pilots, 18 engineers, 48 technicians, and seven cabin crew.
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