The North East Air Support Unit was the main aerial support for

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

forces in north east

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It has since been replaced by the

National Police Air Service The National Police Air Service (NPAS) is a police aviation service that provides centralised air support to the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, as well as the three special police forces serving that area. It replaced the pr ...

, which provides borderless police aviation support across England and Wales.

History

The North East Air Support Unit was formed in 1995 by joint venture of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

and

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

police forces. Before this, Durham and Cleveland contracted in Air support from Northumbria. In 2007, the Northumbria and Durham forces proposed reducing the size of the unit to one aircraft, to be based at Newcastle. Cleveland vetoed this move, and as a result Northumbria and Durham announced their intention to withdraw from the consortium with effect from 1 April 2009. On 1 April 2009, a new North East Air Support Unit was formed serving the Durham and Northumbria forces using an aircraft to be based at Newcastle Airport. The

Cleveland Air Operations Unit The Cleveland Air Operations Unit (CAOU) was the air support/operations unit for the Cleveland Police force. It has since been replaced with the national asset to police: National Police Air Service, National Police Air Service (NPAS) History ...

was established on that date serving Cleveland Police.

Fleet

The North East Air Support Unit had one

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

: *

Eurocopter EC135 The Eurocopter EC135 (now Airbus Helicopters H135) is a twin-engine civil light utility helicopter produced by Airbus Helicopters (formerly known as Eurocopter). It is capable of flight under instrument flight rules (IFR) and is outfitted with ...

registration G-NEAU. The aircraft was received in 2004 and iwas currently based at

Newcastle Airport Newcastle or New Castle Airport may refer to: * Newcastle International Airport, an airport in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK ** Newcastle Airport metro station, the Tyne and Wear metro station serving the airport * Newcastle Airport (Nevis), no ...

. Its call sign was "India 99" The unit's former fleet included: *

Eurocopter AS355 Écureuil 2 The Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters) AS355 Écureuil 2 (or Twin Squirrel) is a twin-engine light utility helicopter developed and originally manufactured by Aérospatiale in France The Écureuil 2 was directly derived from the single-engined ...

, registration G-PASF. Based at Newcastle Airport and was the North East Air Support Unit first aircraft. It was replaced in 1999 by G-NESV. *

Britten-Norman Islander The Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander is a British light utility aircraft and regional airliner designed and originally manufactured by Britten-Norman of the United Kingdom. Still in production, the Islander is one of the best-selling commercial air ...

, registration G-NESU. Bought in 1995 when the consortium of three North East forces was formed. The aircraft was based at Durham Tees Valley Airport. It was replaced in 2005 by the second helicopter. *

, registration G-NESV. This aircraft was brought in 1999 and was based at Newcastle Airport, but moved to Durham Tees Valley when

Cleveland Police Cleveland Police is the territorial police force responsible for the policing area corresponding to the former county of Cleveland in Northern England. As of September 2017, the force had 1,274 police officers, 278 police staff, 124 police com ...

funded their own aircraft.

History

Fleet

See also