New Pilatus PC-12 NGX planes join NT Police force fleet
Two new planes - each costing more than $2m a year- have joined the Territory police force, helping officers reach every corner of the NT in fewer than four hours.
Northern Territory
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Two new planes - each costing more than $2m a year - have joined the Territory police force, helping officers reach every corner of the NT in fewer than four hours.
Two older planes will be retired and replaced by the Pilatus PC-12 NGX, standardising the four-plane fleet.
NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said it was “an absolute lifeline” for the force “working incredibly hard on remote locations”.
“Four planes in the Police Air Wing fleet now can deploy anywhere in four hours, to 64 stations across the Northern Territory, over 1.4 million sq km.
“In one month, we’ll see a plane travel 25,000 km, work up to 40 or 50 hours, moving 140 officers, around 70 prisoners, and delivering 5500 kg of goods out to our police stations for all sorts of reasons - incredible operations undertaken by the police pilots here.”
Commissioner Murphy said the new Swiss-built planes helped overcome the tyranny of distance in the Territory.
“The Pilatus are incredibly effective aircraft because they’re faster deployed, and they can actually get to places and operate really slow and low,” he said.
“We can see operations around missing persons, search and rescues, coastal patrols, missing vehicles and surveillance, but also making sure we can surge officers out to help in broad emergency responses, cyclones, flooding, fires and the like.”
He said standardisation of the fleet would also help streamline training and improve responsiveness to jobs.
Each of the aircraft cost $2.3 million per year, including maintenance.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said: “This is a really important part of increasing capability for our police and making sure we are deployable at every opportunity, and able to provide policing and community safety services right around the Northern Territory.”
Two of the NT Police Airwing’s newest operational pilots, Donald Young and Alex Ramage, were welcomed to the team last year.
Mr Ramage, an “avgeek” from Sydney, moved to the Territory four years ago to fly charter out of Alice Springs, Katherine and Darwin before receiving his police wings.
“Being able to fly the Pilatus PC-12 for the NT Police Airwing has fulfilled a dream of mine,” he said.
Originally published as New Pilatus PC-12 NGX planes join NT Police force fleet
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