Tag Archives: SAPS
SAPS Johannesburg air support operations receives a boost with new H125 Airbus Helicopter
The National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS), General Fannie Masemola has officially handed over a brand new H125 airbus helicopter to the Division: Visible Policing and Operations to bolster the organisation’s crime combatting efforts.
The newly procured H125 airbus adds to the SAPS existing fleet of helicopter’s across the country whose aim is to provide air support in crime prevention operation’s as well as Search and Rescue (SAR) missions.
Speaking during the handing over ceremony held at the Grand Central Airport in Midrand, General Masemola says resourcing and equipping the SAPS operational environments remains a top priority for the SAPS.
“This helicopter came at the very right time when we are entering the peak of our festive season operations, there is work out there cut for its size. We continue to resource our visible and operational response environment with vehicles and other resources to strengthen our crime combatting efforts. For now, this helicopter will be based in Gauteng to bolster crime combatting operations”, said General Fannie Masemola.
The SAPS Airwing unit consists of aircrafts and helicopter’s which are responsible for policing operations ranging from routine patrols to Search and Rescue (SAR) operations, to support operations for high risk units which include the Special Task Force (STF), the Counter Assault Team(CAT), the National Intervention Unit (NIU), Tactical Response Teams (TRT) and the Public Order Police (POP) units. They also provide Operational Support during public unrests and crowd control operations, Vehicle, Stock as well as Game Theft Operations.
They mainly focus on tracking and tracing suspects in high risk incidents such as Cash-In-Transit(CIT) heists, Armed Robberies, Hijacking’s and a host of other serious and violent crimes.
Police officers who are deployed to work on board are called Airborne Law Enforcement Officers (ALEO). Apart from providing air support to specialised teams on the ground, these members are trained in assisting SAPS pilots with observations and also reading of aerial maps.
COVID Aviation Trips – Rand Airport
By now most of us have been absolutely deprived of aviation. Unfortunately all airshows for 2020 have been either postponed or cancelled. This leaves us with almost no aviation action, or does it?
In the coming weeks, we will be looking at different smaller aviation spots that can help scratch that aviation itch that has been annoying us all during this lockdown.
In the third installment in this series we are looking at yet another smaller airport in Gauteng. Rand Airport is a great spot to feel the wind coming off aircraft and smell the turbine exhaust.
What makes Rand great is the fact that it has more than one great spots. The first of these being the SAA Museum located at the Eastern side of the airport.
The museum has many historic SAA aircraft like 737s, DC-4s and 747s where one can get the opportunity to not only admire them from the outside, but also from within.
At the museum one can also find the Dakotas Pub and Grill. From the restaurant one has a nice view of Runway 29 takeoffs and landings as well as some taxiway action.
The second spot at Rand Airport is another Harvard Cafe. Just like the one at Grand Central, this restaurant offers a nice view of the apron, with great food and a play area for children.
Rand Airport is home to many beautiful aircraft like the Flying Lions, Cows Pitts, Goodyear Eagles, Menno Parsons’ collection and many more.
This airport makes for another great outing during these times where aviation seems to be a scarcity. With the SAA Museum and Harvard Cafe one can easily get two unique trips out of this one spot.
ICAD Polokwane Airshow -set for this Saturday 7th December 2019
Saturday 7th December will see the International Civil Aviation Day taking place at Polokwane International Airport in the Limpopo province. This particular event will also see an airshow taking place with both civilian and South African Airforce types.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula will be making a keynote address at the International Civil Aviation day Commemoration. ICAD 2019 will be attracting over 1600 learners from around the Limpopo Province to the event.
Two airshow favourites from the SAAF side, The Hawk MK120 from 85 Combat Flying School and a Gripen from 2 Squadron will be displayed at the show on Saturday, as well as other types of the likes of the Goodyear Eagles Pitts, Flying Lions, Team Extreme, Little Annie and much more!
The show is free to the public and the flying displays start at 10am.
Kishugu SAPS Students graduate from ATO
Kishugu SAPS Students graduate from ATO
Nelspruit, 11 September, 2018
The Kishugu Aviation Training Organisation (ATO) bids farewell to the South African Police Service (SAPS) female students. A delegation from the SAPS training division visiting Kishugu Aviation on Friday, 30 August, for the final debrief on the training of this dynamic group of female pilots.
The nine young ladies were selected by the South African Police Service to become pilots for the SAPS air wing. The cost of their training was met by the Transport Education Training Authority (TETA).
Kishugu SAPS Students graduate from ATO
Tshomarelo Moima (24) from Pretoria, Tebogo Boshielo (22) from Pretoria, Linah Mphanga (25) from Hazyview, Mpumalanga, Happiness Sibiya (22) from Mpumalanga, Lindelwa Mdaki (22) from Durban, Usisipho Fanie (26) from Western Cape, Gloria Banda (21) from Danville Pretoria and Tobeka Shozi (20) from Pietermaritzburg, KZN.
“We are extremely proud of these young ladies and very happy with Kishugu on the sterling job of training these ladies. We will definitely be using Kishugu again to train more pilots, perhaps as early as January 2019,” says Major General Gossmann.
Their success is all the more remarkable since many of them did not have a driver’s license, nor had any of them ever been in light aircraft before their training began.
They were selected as part of a SAPS initiative aimed at skills development and creating jobs. Kishugu ATO won the contract to train the pilots after an extremely tough tender vetting process.
Since arriving at Kishugu ATO in April 2016 these women have been taking to the skies on almost a daily basis building hours and experience. To date the women accumulated over 2,200 hours of flying. Kishugu will now engage further with TETA and the SAPS on possibly recruiting more pilots in the future to be trained.