£200k bill for 12thcrash PSNI plane

The whopping repair bill represents 30 per cent of the £670k it would cost to purchase a similar model out of the factory today.

Earlier this month the Sentinel reported exclusively how three people were on board when the police spy plane touched down on grass over 100 metres short of the Aldergrove runway threshold colliding with the approach lighting system at approximately 2am on Wednesday, July 13.

The BN2T Islander (G-BSWR) - one of only two such planes officially used by police forces in the entire UK - was coming back from a 2.5 hour “operation in an area to the northwest of the airport.”

The accident occurred on a night of rioting in Londonderry which followed the Twelfth celebrations. Twelve people, including one woman, were arrested after petrol bombs and bricks were thrown at police. There was trouble in the Bogside and Gobnascale areas of the city.

Neither the 46-year-old pilot, who had 5,740 hours (of which 2,212 were on type) flying experience, or the two passengers were hurt.

But damage was sustained to a propeller blade on the right engine, the nose cone and the fuselage. The officers on board thought they might have hit a hare on the runway when coming in to land.

The Sentinel asked the PSNI how much it had cost to repair the plane but a spokesperson refused to volunteer the information and advised the paper it would have to launch a Freedom of Information request to hold the force accountable for the expenditure of the people’s money.

Subsequent to the Sentinel report a Belfast-based reader launched a successful FOI request and has now supplied that information to the paper.

Today we can again provide exclusive information to our readers regarding the incident by revealing the £200k repair bill.

The reader - who contacted the paper via his Twitter feed ‘Belfastjj - Holding PSNI & Local Gov & Politicians to account - FOI Act fan’ - discovered the cost of damage was £201,790.73.

The FOI release reads: “In relation to the second accident on July 11, 2011, involving the PSNI Islander aircraft, the cost of repairs was £201,790.73.”

The date provided by the PSNI to ‘Belfastjj’ in this FOI response does not correspond to the date of the accident as held by the Department of Transport’s Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) as reported in this newspaper at the start of May.

According to the accident report the weather on the night was clear and cloudless when the plane returned from its second operation of the night.

“The pilot’s perception was that the approach was normal and that he flared and carried out an uneventful landing. However, after touchdown he and his two passengers heard a number of dull thuds,” the report reveals.

After taxiing to Aldergrove’s parking area and shutting down the engines on the 22-year-old aircraft “the pilot and passengers discussed the thuds they had heard and, initially, thought that they may have been caused by contact with a hare or other animal during the landing.”

A survey of the outside of the plane, however, revealed grass on the underside and damage to the starboard side of the fuselage.

The pilot phoned Air Traffic Control (ATC) to advise them that he may have made contact with the approach lights.

“A runway inspection vehicle was detailed to inspect the lighting system and reported damage to the last three centreline approach lights.

“A further inspection showed tyre marks in the grass starting 80 metres short of the paved surface, 125 metres short of the displaced runway threshold,” the report explains.

According to the official accident report the plane was in pretty bad shape after the crash.

“The damage to the aircraft was significant. The starboard propeller was damaged, the engine required inspection for possible shock loading, there was impact damage to the nose cone and scratching, denting and a puncture hole in the starboard fuselage. There were also several other holes in the aircraft’s skin,” it states.

The accident occurred despite the pilot’s extensive experience and the fact that in the three months prior to the accident the Islander had been in the air on operations for 64 hours solid. In the 28 days prior to the accident it had been in the air for over a whole day collectively.

Equally, the pilot felt “the approach and landing were normal” and was “unaware that there had been anything unusual with the landing until after shutting the engines down.”

The pilot subsequently felt the merging of runway lights may have contributed to the accident.

“Other possible factors were that the night was very dark, with high overcast cloud, and that the final approach for Runway 07 is over an area with little cultural lighting.

“There was, therefore, a lack of visual cues, other than the Precision approach path Indicator (PAPI) on which to judge the position of the aircraft relative to the surface and the runway.

“The operator has advised its pilots that the PAPIs must be used for approaches at night when they are available,” the report says.

The accident occurred less than a year after four people were injured when a police helicopter overturned in the Mourne mountains.

According to the PSNI its Air Support Unit (ASU) assists front line officers throughout Northern Ireland with crime investigations, anti-crime operations, traffic management, search and rescue, public order situations, crime reduction initiatives and tackling terrorism.

For example, the PSNI drafted in air support for last year’s Vital festival in Bangor - played by Londonderry group The Wonder Villains and US rapper Eminem - costing £9,625 in total.

The PSNI has more aircraft than any other police service in the UK - including the Metropolitan and the Greater Manchester forces.

The damaged Islander was one of just two out of 35 official police aircraft throughout the UK. Another Islander operates from Manchester.

The Sentinel asked the PSNI if any disciplinary action was taken against the pilot as a result of the £200k bill. The paper also asked if the repairs were paid from a central or local police budget and whether it felt a repair bill 30 per cent the cost of a new plane was value for money. No response was available at the time of press.