By Nigel Williams
The two Bell 206 helicopters purchased by the administration to fight crime are not suited to the task says Captain Gerry Gouveia but government spokesman Dr Roger Luncheon says the nay-sayers should look out for the results.
The helicopters costing a total of just over US$1.5M ($300M) are used machines with the one already here having chalked up over 10,000 flying hours. The helicopters had been specifically acquired by the administration in response to the upsurge in criminal violence, culminating in the two recent massacres at Lusignan and Bartica which claimed the lives of 23 people.
One of the choppers with serial number 3012 flew into Guyana from Costa Rica on Wednesday. Luncheon told a press conference yesterday that the second chopper would arrive in two weeks. President Bharrat Jagdeo had disclosed at a press conference two weeks ago that his administration had already made payments on the two helicopters which were sourced from Costa Rica and the United States to aid in aerial surveillance.
Jagdeo had also said that a private engineer had been recruited to assess the craft to ensure they were quality choppers.
Managing Director of Roraima Airways, Gouveia told Stabroek News in an interview yesterday that there was no question as to whether the country needed helicopters but he said Guyana needs choppers that could transport 8-10 men from one location to another and also do emergency medical evacuations and other tasks.
“But the helicopters we are buying cannot do all of these and I wonder whether it was a waste of taxpayers’ dollars,” Gouveia commented. He argued that the Bell 206 chopper which flew in on Wednesday was a 1980-manufactured machine with limited capacity to transport troops and unsuited to fighting crime. “This is a tourism helicopter”, Gouveia said of the chopper, sitting at Camp Ayanganna presently. “By no means it is suited to support our security forces, it could only carry two passengers, cannot carry logistic support and in terms of rapid response and speed this is a joke and a comedy,” Gouveia declared.
Information about the chopper obtained by this newspaper showed that it has a total flight time of over 10,000 hours and has passed through at least three hands. Gouveia said that no aviation professional he spoke with here said that they were consulted by the government or the army on the purchasing of the machines.
Advice
Luncheon however disagreed with this, noting that the administration had sought the advice of Lex Barker, the owner and operator of the only Bell 206 helicopter in the country and also Mike Brassington, a Guyanese pilot residing in the US. Luncheon said both of these men were competent officials in the aviation sector and he was certain that their advice was sound. “But let us wait on the results…ask me one year from now about the effectiveness of the helicopters,” Luncheon challenged.
Pressed on whether local aviation experts were consulted, Luncheon said there was no need for much advice, since the administration’s technical people in the army Air Corps unit along with others played the role as advisers. “In every step they provided quality assurance standards to us in ensuring that we are getting value for our money,” the Cabinet Secretary said. Stabroek News was unable to elicit a comment from the hierarchy of the army on the issue, but according to reports Major Mike Charles, the army’s top pilot did not play a lead role in the purchasing of the helicopter.
Gouveia said that the GDF air corps at present did not have the human resource capacity and experience to make those kinds of decisions. He further stated that it is sad that a good intention by the government went bad. According to Gouveia the chopper could not carry more than four passengers and this was not ideal for fighting criminals who have resorted to hiding out in the backlands. He questioned if 25 gunmen attacked a location in the interior whether the security forces would fly in four men, leave them there and go and pick up another four in order to confront the criminals. However, Luncheon said that it wouldn’t be four men, but eight since the administration has acquired two choppers.
“What you want us to do? We didn’t have any helicopter and people were complaining. Now we have two and they are still complaining,” Luncheon remarked. He told this newspaper that the administration would not have bought the helicopters had it not considered all the drawbacks. In addition, the Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) told Stabroek News that both choppers would be fitted with infra-red search lights capable of lighting up half of a football field. He said this would enable the security forces to track down criminals in the night whether in the urban centres or amidst bush. But Gouveia countered, saying that the 206 choppers are single-engine craft, which according to aviation standards in Guyana are not allowed to travel at night. Captain Gouveia also said that from what he knew the chopper which arrived here on Wednesday did not have the instrumentation to allow it to fly at night. “I don’t think we procured daytime helicopters…the helicopters would be used as needed,” the HPS asserted.
Gouveia said with all the efforts that were being made here to respond to any flood crisis, other natural disasters and crime it is inconceivable that the government would purchase that type of helicopters. “The money we spent on buying these two junks could have been used to fix the Bell 412, a far better quality helicopter,” Gouveia argued. The Bell 412 has been out of operation for over two years now and Gouveia believes that mismanagement and lack of proper maintenance have contributed to the state it is in. He said the GDF had previously used the chopper, acquired under the PNC administration to do commercial work.
Captain Gouveia is an experienced aviator with an Airline Transport Pilot Licence for fix-winged aircraft, spent twelve of his formative years in the Army Air Corps, serving as Training Officer and subsequently Chief Pilot before resigning in December 1987.
