Swedish Police Wing

Description

The Swedish Police operates its own helicopter unit since nearly half a century back. The Police Wing, or Polisflyget as it is called in Swedish, is subordinated the National Criminal Police (Rikskriminalen) and employs roughly 55 officers.

The Police Wing operates seven Bell 429s and one Jet Ranger. The helicopters are spread throughout five air stations – Malmö, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Östersund and Boden. The Jet Ranger is stationed at the main base in Gothenburg and serves as a flight trainer at the organization’s own flight school.

The helicopters are available 24/7 and can be requested by any police unit in the country. The most frequent assignments are surveillance tasks and search operations.

History

Although being a government authority the Police Wing is managed as a civil state operator and carries the structure stipulated by EASA, supervised by the Swedish Transport Agency. The pilots are police officers that have served at least five years in the force before gaining a Commercial Pilot License and an extensive mission training.

In September 2012 National Police Chief Bengt Svenson took the formal decision to renew the Police Wing's fleet of six EC135s, as well as to strengthen the structure with an additional machine that will substitute for the aircraft lost in 2007.

On 14 July 2014 Bell Helicopter announced that the Swedish National Police had signed a purchase agreement for seven Bell 429 helicopters, with the first delivery expected in mid 2015.

The first Bell 429 (SE-JPU) was handed over on 1 October 2015. It made its first official flight in service with the Swedish Police Authority on 27 October, marking the formal start of the new helicopter system.

The seven Bell 429s were delivered in a rapid pace. The last two helicopters arrived a week prior to Christmas 2015, and by then some Bell 429s had already been placed in active police alert.

The EC135s were exported to Germany in a gradual step-by-step handover between February 2015 and February 2016. They were all purchased by a that company offers air services for offshore windmill parks.

In October and November 2016 one of the Police Wing's Bell 429s were deployed in Lesbos/Greece for Shengen border patrol operations, coordinated by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex. The helicopter, which focused in surveillance, did 163 check-ups, 90 missions, and 8 search and rescue operations in 224 flight hours. A total of 301 lives were saved.