FIRES: Puma helicopters left the “to rot” in Alverca, after revised Beja.
Four Puma helicopters that were part of the Portuguese Air Force (FAP) They are “virtually forgotten” a hangar in Alverca, revealed the News Journal (JN), when it questions the lack of aircraft for fighting fires.
The four Puma helicopters are the rest of the SA-330 fleet that fitted the FAP, to arrive, in 2008, EH-101 Merlin back. However those four aircraft still fly again 2011, to fill gaps in Merlin after being improved at Air Base (BA) 11, in Beja, where they have been for many months.
Since then, aircraft have been stored in hangars in Alverca, for sale, but they have not appeared interested. According JN, citing aeronautical fonte, “the Puma could be reconfigured to fire fighting”.
in contrast, military sources, the newspaper, They ruled out the use of aircraft, taking into account “the reconfiguration costs of Puma, which could exceed the 25 million, doubts about its structural condition and the lack of certified pilots to operate”, having established that the JN “no civilian pilots with qualification for this purpose”.
The helicopters "Cougar" were in service in the Air Base paragraph 4, based on the Lajes, Third-Azores Island, adstritos the Police 711- "Albatrosses", They have been disabled in the service of the Air Force, in 30 November 2006, having reached the hangars BA11, in early December this year.
Later, in February 2008, a team composed of about 20 sergeants and six officers, were inspecting the heli's Puma, but, in order to be placed on the same flying. Only two of the four devices that were in the BA hangars 11, prepared to fly, getting the other two helicopters awaiting government decision.
The two aircraft were sent to the Azores (Photo FAP in Lajes in September 2009), since it causes problems were in the reactors of the EH-101 Merlin, whose fleet had entered the service of the Air Force in February 2005.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
photo credit: Portuguese Air Force
