Post by viscount on Jul 26, 2010 11:53:00 GMT 1
Police Air Support Group Operations
from Liverpool Airport 1989 - 2000.
from Liverpool Airport 1989 - 2000.
Merseyside Police ASG Operations
Although the AA used to operate traffic observation flights over Aintree for the Grand National Meeting up until the early 'Sixties, the Police themselves were rarely involved in using aircraft or helicopters until the late 'Eighties. In full black and yellow colours the AA had Dragon Rapide G-AHKV, Auster G-APAA and Apache G-APZE. For example, the Dragon Rapide operated over Aintree, traffic spotting for the Grand national 23rd March 1961.
Mc Alpine Helicopters, from their Hayes base, encouraged Police forces to investigate the advantages of using helicopters as a tool in the fight against crime. Merseyside Police were targeted by McAlpines, and on 8th December 1988 they brought demonstrator Aerospatial AS.355F Twin Squirrel G-BOOV to Liverpool and operated a number of flights from a site adjacent to the Albert Dock, and close to Liverpool Police Headquarters. Although Liverpool was short of cash, they were interested, so took the helicopter on a two week operational trial, later extended to five weeks.
Twin Squirrel G-BOOV was back at Liverpool 28th December 1988 for operational trials, operating from the Albert Docks car park site by day and Liverpool Airport at night. First helicopter assisted arrest was at Newton-le-Willows 31st December in the early hours. The criminal element in Liverpool, particularly those now commonly referred to as TWOC'ers (although at the time erroneously known as 'joy riders') were particularly upset at the success of the helicopter in bring about arrest at the end of car chases, so the helicopter was attacked with fire bombs while sat on the apron at Liverpool Airport. Although the attack was fairly ineffective, the helicopter was damaged, so returned to Hayes for inspection and remedial work 10th to 13th January. G-BOOV returned to Hayes on 25th January 1989 at the end of the trial period. Throughout this trial the McAlpine Helicopter call-sign 'MCH 06' was used.
The result of the trial was that Merseyside Police Authority authorised the purchase and operational contract for a Twin Squirrel. So, on Friday 4th August 1989, G-BOOV arrived at the Airport via Woodvale. Initially servicing was performed at Hayes, later Oxford and then Barton. During periods away for maintenance, usually a substitute Squirrel would operate at Liverpool. Statistics for the first year of operations revealed 533 operational missions flown, with 151 assists resulting in arrests.
As far as I can recall the call-sign 'Police 24' was used from the start, with 'Mike 1' being used on the policenet. In the early days landings away from it's Airport base were made around Merseyside. For example the Twin Squirrel visited the Police College in Mather Avenue several times, the open ground south of the Albert Dock and landed beside major road incidents.
For three days in July 1992 for the St.Helens Show and a couple of days in August, Air Nova Cherokee aircraft from Liverpool were used for traffic reporting duties, with the call-sign 'Police 2'. Presumably this was to ensure the helicopter was availble for crime duties, not tied up with extended periods of traffic control duties.
Incidents, maintenance and re-sprays
Police ASG helicopter movements soon clock-up many hours and multiple missions per day. They are intensively used helicopters, sometimes operating in quite demanding weather and operational conditions. One result is that over the years, a number of small incidents get recorded. Do bear in mind that the following paragraphs cover 10 years of intensive operations.
G-BOOV was away at Hayes 22.2.91 to 2.3.91 and during this time was repainted in new Merseyside Police colours, also a new radio fit was installed and a new searchlight fitted. On 17.10.91 a heavy landing at Liverpool Airport in foggy conditions in the early hours caused considerable damage to the boom and tail rotor. G-BOOV was roaded to Hayes 29.10 for assessment and repair. Returned to Liverpool 29.11.91 with yellow forescent stripes added to the colour scheme.
On 17.4.92 an emergency landing at the Airport was safely performed after an electrical fault. A few months later the wrong fuel was accidently put in by a new contractor at the Airport, so another visit to Hayes 4-19.9.92.
This unfortunate run continued on 6.1.93 with another precautionary emergancy landing at Liverpool with a machanical fault. Roaded to Oxford for repairs, when it returned 30.3.93 it was sporting a revised colour scheme.
Perhaps a lesson from the past had been learned, as when fog shrouded the Airport on 17.2.94, G-FTWO headed for Burtonwood to land there. Operations seem to have then been conducted without great incident for the next few years.
A routine maintenance stay at Oxford 9-16.7.98 included a respray in very dark blue (close to black) and yellow top colour scheme.
A number of different Squirrel helicopters were used as substitute aircraft over the years. Usually for under a week at a time, several times per year. Only very occasionally G-BOOV was away for over a month. Substitute Squirrels recorded over the years:
G-SCHU 1990
G-BPRF 1991
G-BOSK 1991
G-MAAS 1992
G-NUTZ 1992
G-FTWO 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000
G-TMMC 1996
G-BXBT 1997, 1999
G-BWZC 1998
G-CCAO 1999
G-BPRI 2000 (actually 7 & 8.4.00 as additional support for MASG for Grand National Meeting).
During the years, the actual position on the apron used by the ASG helicopter changed. A hangar was built beside the terminal building, into which the Twin Squirrel would just fit. The ASG crews had an office/ready room in the 'warehouse' style terminal of the time.
Move to Woodvale in 2000
Although operations from the Airport, with the assistance of ATC caused little disruption to passenger traffic, a review of the helicopter operations came to the conclusion that Woodvale would be a more appropriate base, although further away from much of urban Liverpool. So a hangar and operations building were constructed there and the Police ASG helicopter moved out to Woodvale on 1st September 2000.
In late Autumn 2002 the Twin Squirrel G-BOOV, after 13 years of service was replaced by a larger and more capable Eurocopter EC.135T2 G-XMII, which continues to serve well 8 years on. While often over the Speke area, the helicopter very rarely lands at Liverpool Airport nowadays. The registration is reflected in the policenet call-sign 'X-ray Mike 1-1', and 'Police 24' for ATC calls. In an apparent repeat of the incident some 2 decades before, an attack was made on the EC.135 whle hangared at Woodvale Spring 2010. No lasting damage was inflicted, unlike the 8.6.09 attack on G-WMAO of the West Midlands Police, which was destroyed by fire at it's base.
Cheshire County Constabulary ASG
Cheshire Police took longer to take to the air. While helicopters were fine for metropolitan areas, they were less suited to county-wide policing. So when Cheshire eventually took to the air, their choice was the Britten Norman Islander. BN-2A Islander, G-CHES, was delivered to Liverpool Airport from Gloucester 25th April 1994 for Cheshire Constabulary. Liverpool Airport being the most convenient 24-hour operation airport for Cheshire! Crews and operations staff shared the facilities with the Merseyside Police at the Airport. After a month, the initial call-sign 'Police 04' was changed wef 28.5.95 to 'Police 56', due to ATC confusion with Merseyside's 'Police 24'. At some stage (when?) Cheshire Police reverted to the call-sign 'Police 04'.
Compared to Merseyside's helicopter, the fit in the Islander was fairly basic with initially no FLIR or video camera fit - however running costs were stated to be just a quarter of that of a helicopter!
The Cheshire ASG operated at Liverpool, without notable incident, for a little under three years. With Chester/Hawarden offering extended hours, and being much closer to County Police HQ, Islander G-CHES moved out, to be based at Hawarden 24th January 1997.
Like Merseyside's Twin Squirrel, time away at Gloucester for maintenance and upgrades was usually covered by a substitute aircraft. During the Liverpool years, G-CHES was covered by:
G-PASV 1994, 1995, 1996
G-PASU 1995
After moving to Hawarden, BN-2A G-CHES was replaced by BN-2B G-CHEZ summer 2001. This Islander was in turn replaced by Eurocopter EC.135P2+ G-CPAO from Spring 2010.
As I know several former Officers are amongst the forum members, I do hope I've used the correct terminology throughout. Although I've used the term TWOC'ers, I'm informed that this is a term not actually used by Merseyside Police. Makes for an interesting account, I'm just find it quite remarkable that there have been Police helicopters over my house for over twenty years now!
Footnote:
G-BOOV was briefly cancelled as 'sold in the USA', however now restored to the UK register as G-PDGT with PLM-Dollar Group and is current.
G-CHES was written off 17.10.07 at 1930 hours, when it hit a hillside, 5 miles from Guadalcanal, Spain when correcting a loss of power. Although British registered, owned by Auxiliar de Actividades Aerea at the time.
As this entry is made in July 2010, G-CHEZ was demonstrated at Farnborough '10 still in its Police colours. No doubt a new owner will be revealed shortly.
PS. Is it 'Air Support Group', 'Air Support Unit' or even 'Aviation Support Group/Unit' - or did it change with time, or does it not really matter ?
