Police may get extra helicopter assistance

Police helicopter.Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix
The police Directorate and NCA are negotiating a possible deal that will allow the police to use the  24/7 manned helicopters of the NCA for transport.
The police have two helicopters, both of which are stationed in Oslo and are  mainly used around the metropolitan area. The NCA helicopters are stationed in Bergen and Hammerfest,  the newspaper Bergens Tidende writes.
– We will renew the helicopter contract before the summer and have been asked by the police whether it is possbible for us to collaborate with them on the helicopters,  pilot director Erik Freberg Blom in the NCA said. Air transport AS  owns and flies the helicopters and has a contract that runs until 2017. They are perfectly willing to transport cops too, but they are only willing to handle assignments that are purely transport assignments.
– Civilian operators are not made for operations that puts our crews at risk beyond what would be expected in our line of operations. But we are open to all types of operations that do not put our crews at risk,  CEO Stig Næsh says.
Chief Kaare Songstad in district West has little faith in its own police helicopter in Bergen and is positive to fly with pilots helicopters.
– In an emergency situation, it is important for the police to get crews quickly to the spot. Then the pilot helicopters will be a possibility, but it must be what we call a graspable resource – not a contingency that only works on paper, writes Songstad in an email to the newspaper.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today