East Midlands Air Support Unit

The East Midlands Air Support Unit was a joint consortium established to provide police aviation for Leicestershire Constabulary, Northamptonshire Police and Warwickshire Police.^[1][2] It was formed in April 1994 and operated a Eurocopter EC135^[1][2] from Sulby, near Welford in Northamptonshire.^[3]

In October 2013, it was replaced by the National Police Air Service (NPAS).^[4]

Aircraft

The unit began operations in 1994 using a Eurocopter AS355 Écureuil 2, G-EMAU. This served until 1998, when it crashed shortly after takeoff from the base into the woodland opposite, killing one member of the crew and injuring two others.^[5] A year later the unit received a new aircraft, G-EMAS, a Eurocopter EC135 T1. This aircraft remained with the unit until 2007 when it was sold to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service where it was re-registered VP-CPS.^[6] The units final aircraft before its absorption into NPAS was G-EMID, an EC135 P2+ which transferred to NPAS.

EC135 - G-EMID

See also

• Police aviation
• Police aviation in the United Kingdom