The Border Security Force (BSF) hopes to get the grounded helicopter fleet of its Air Wing airborne again after an agreement with the Air Force to provide pilots. A memorandum of understanding to this effect has been signed between the Union Home Ministry and the Ministry of Defence.“We need 10 more pilots to get our entire fleet of six Mi17 helicopters running. The Air Force has agreed to provide these pilots and flight engineers needed for maintaining them,” said BSF Director General A K Mitra. The Air Wing currently has two pilots for the choppers, which means that only one out of the six in the fleet has been operational for many months now.The Air Force is also likely to give an Air Vice Marshal to head the Air Wing that provides air support to other Central paramilitary forces as well. In due course, the BSF expects the Air Force to provide additional helicopters as well, Mitra said. The Air Wing also has an Embraer, two King Air and two Avro aircraft. Currently, only one of the Avros is flying due to shortage of pilots. The BSF hopes that the Air Force will provide extra pilots so that the second Avro can also become functional.The Air Wing provides choppers for logistics support like deployment of personnel, supplies and evacuation of the injured in Naxal-affected states like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The Union Home Ministry reimburses the cost of hiring them under its Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme. With most of its fleet grounded due to the shortage of pilots, it had been forced to hire choppers from private firms. The BSF has also outsourced flying and maintenance of the Air Wing fleet to private aviation firms in the past few months.
