Swedish police helicopter back from Greece

The Swedish National Police has resumed to full strength after its seventh Bell 429 has returned from a two-month deployment in Greece. One helicopter and more than 20 people from the Swedish Police have participated in Operation Poseidon Sea, coordinated by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex.

The helicopter was used to patrol the Schengen border in the Aegean Sea during October and November. The unit was organized to look for migrants on their way to Greece by boat, and to assist in potential search and rescue situations by alerting relevant authorities of persons in distress at sea. In a total, Frontex saved 301 lives, and many experiences were made. The two-month deployment resulted in:

• 224 flight hours
• 163 check-ups
• 90 missions
• 8 search and rescue missions

The unit earned a lot of knowledge during the deployment, including how to plan for endurance far from home, with aspects covering personnel planning, spare parts and maintenance of the helicopter.
- These kinds of experiences would take many years to obtain in Sweden, says Rickard Henningsson who was executive officer and team leader on site. We are not used to situations with so many distressed people at sea at the same time. In Greece, we have sometimes had about 70 people at a time. This could only match up to the Estonia accident [back in 1994], he says.

The Bell 429 helicopters were delivered to the Swedish National Police about a year ago, and the police reports that the equipment worked well in Greece. This was the first time the Swedish Police Wing participated in an operation of this kind.