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New CI Air Search plane set to touch down soon

CHANNEL Islands Air Search could take delivery of a new aircraft as soon as next month, the charity’s chief officer has said.

nThe new Channel Islands Air Search aircraft in Lee-On-The-Solent. The plane has not yet been painted and is pictured in its basecoat. It is due to be flown to the paint shop in Bournemouth on 9 January Picture: Channel Islands Air Search
nThe new Channel Islands Air Search aircraft in Lee-On-The-Solent. The plane has not yet been painted and is pictured in its basecoat. It is due to be flown to the paint shop in Bournemouth on 9 January Picture: Channel Islands Air Search / Supplied

John Fitzgerald said the new plane, a Britten-Norman Islander, has now been assembled and was waiting to be painted and have its specialist search equipment installed.

The organisation has been trying to obtain a new aircraft since its previous one, Lion’s Pride, crashed in a field in Jersey in November 2013 during a search for two fishermen, who were later found on the Ecrehous.

It was thought initially that the stricken aircraft – which sustained heavy damage to its nose – could be repaired and a fundraising campaign was set up.

However, about a month later it was deemed to be damaged beyond repair and CIAS were forced to spend the following years raising about £800,000 to fund the construction of a new plane.

The plane’s delivery date was originally set for early 2017 but has been put back repeatedly and an interim aircraft with more limited capabilities has been used in the meantime.

But now, Mr Fitzgerald said he was hopeful the charity would take delivery of the new aircraft in February.

‘Once the fuselage and wings arrived in the UK from Romania they were able to turn

things around quite quickly,’ he said. ‘It should be flown to the paint shop in Bournemouth on 9 January for two weeks.

‘It is a much better aircraft in terms of the data that we can collect and the search equipment we will have on-board is much more advanced.

‘The thermal-imaging camera is a lot more stable, higher resolution and we can mix the image with standard imaging to allow us to see through ship windows.’

Mr Fitzgerald said one of the features of the camera was that it could be pre-set before take-off to search a specific area long

before the aircraft arrived at the scene.

He added that when the aircraft was delivered to its base in Guernsey, the crew would need to complete about a month of intensive training.

‘It is due to be in Jersey in April for a blessing at the airport and we will be doing a fair few visits to show it to groups and organisations,’ he said.

‘The type of propellers the aircraft has been fitted with are quieter and the thermal capability of the plane means we can fly higher so it should not be as noisy,

which is always a concern for

us.’

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