After being grounded for more than a year the army’s Bell 412 helicopter finally took to the sky on Saturday, but the Defence Board must decide on its future use, Guyana Defence Force, Chief-of-Staff Gary Best said.

The Bell 412 chopper which was acquired under the Forbes Burnham administration is said to be the army’s most versatile machine, although Secretary to the Defence Board Roger Luncheon said if he had his way he would have gotten rid of it.  According to a release from the Government Information Agency (GINA) the helicopter was flown from the Tacama savannahs to the army’s air corps base at Timehri. GINA said Major Michael Charles who flew the chopper said that it had received a new engine.

The National Assembly had approved $24M to repair the chopper earlier this year.  Back in January the House approved $9.8B in supplementary spending over the 2007 budget $24M of which was for the repair of the Bell 412 chopper. Parliamentarians had questioned at the time of the provision whether the government had considered buying a new helicopter, but Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Jennifer Webster said that the government saw it as more economical to repair the helicopter. 

Government recently acquired two five-seater Bell 206 helicopters to aid in its crime fighting, but local and overseas aviators have criticized the purchase of the two machines saying that they are not suited to fight crime.