The production of the first helicopter of the Canton Sarajevo (CS) Ministry of the Internal Affairs, manufactured by the United States (U.S.) company Bell Textron Inc. at its facility in Piney Flats, Tennessee, has been completed. The Minister of the Internal Affairs of (CS), Admir Katica, sent a message to citizens from the U.S., along with the first photographs and video footage of the completed aircraft.
“Dear citizens,
I can proudly announce that the production of the first helicopter of the CS Ministry of the Internal Affairs has been completed. It was a long journey, but do not forget that in two years we went from zero to a top-tier multipurpose aircraft, the only one of this kind and quality in BiH.
This helicopter is intended for special missions, search and rescue operations, and evacuations, and no task is too demanding for it. When extreme conditions arise, this helicopter will have our back. When speed and time are crucial, we will measure rescue and survival time in minutes, not kilometers,” Minister Katica said.
“This is not just a helicopter for police operations; this is a tool with which we will save lives, property, and natural resources. This is also the largest and most significant material resource that the CS Ministry of the Internal Affairs has ever had,” the minister added, announcing that the first helicopter of the CS Ministry of the Internal Affairs will arrive in Sarajevo in a few months.
Minister Katica is staying in the U.S. with members of the expert commission conducting the acceptance inspection of the aircraft. The presentation of the helicopter at Bell’s Piney Flats facility in Tennessee was carried out by Emily Chapman, Customer Experience Manager at Bell Piney Flats in Tennessee.
“I am very pleased to host the delegation from CS today and to present the new helicopter to them. We are very excited about the cooperation between Bell and CS, as well as the team from the company Shot. We are happy to be able to present all the capabilities that this helicopter will provide to your community: security, transport, search and rescue, police activities, firefighting, medical assistance, as well as our first cooperation with BiH, and we hope this is the beginning of a great partnership, and we are happy about that,” Chapman said.
It should be recalled that the acceptance inspection of the helicopter of the CS Ministry of the Internal Affairs is currently underway, which will determine the compliance of the aircraft with the buyer’s requirements, that is, verify the helicopter’s configuration and determine whether the technical characteristics of the manufactured aircraft correspond to those prescribed by the specifications and the contract.
As confirmed by the company Bell, in a few weeks, this helicopter will be transported from the port in Atlanta to their service center in Prague. It is precisely in Prague that another, much more detailed inspection will be carried out, prior to delivery to CS.
