Case studies

Teamwork

One word sums up our approach at NPAS – teamwork.

In August, one of our NPAS London crews was flying back to our Lippett's Hill base after a deployment when they noticed smoke near Ilford, so went to check it out.

Firefighters were at the scene dealing with the blaze which was spreading westwards towards a railway line. But the aircrew noticed flames starting to move southwards across a field towards houses.

The crew advised London Fire Brigade and identified a rendezvous point for police, fire and ambulance officers to coordinate the evacuation of nearby houses. These houses included homes for disabled people who were unable to leave without assistance.

The helicopter’s downlink equipment provided vital, real-time footage to scene commanders, showing them the blaze as it spread to within metres of people’s homes.

Given the speed of the spread of fire, and the fact that some people were unable to self-evacuate, the event could have very quickly escalated into a major incident, without the timely sighting of the NPAS crew and excellent teamwork between air and ground crews.

Disrupting crime

For some, the crime of hare coursing may not seem a big deal.

But the reality is that it often masks more serious, organised, and dangerous, offending.

NPAS crews are perfectly suited to support forces with rural crime - and have seen significant results.

In October 2022, a crew from NPAS North Weald was tasked to spot hare coursers on land in Essex.

On locating a suspicious vehicle, the crew pursued it through Essex, Hertfordshire and into London boroughs, where it was brought to a tactical stop by traffic units.

It was revealed the driver had been wanted by police for serious crimes for five years.

In a separate incident, a check on five suspected hare coursers in November 2022 revealed they had a string of convictions, including kidnap, aggravated burglary, firearms offences robbery and serious assaults.

Hare coursers have been known to threaten landowners, assaulting them and burning property.

They may think they can evade justice but, together, we can make sure they don’t.

There has been a 70% reduction in crime perpetrated by organised crime groups in Essex, and NPAS is proud to have been able to support the drive to keep our communities safer.

Searching for vulnerable people

In 2022/23, 984 vulnerable or missing people were found directly by a National Police Air Service crew – many of whom were at risk of serious harm had they not been found quickly.

This is especially true for people who have dementia.

One such case was that of a 77-year-old man with dementia and pneumonia who wandered from a hospital in Lancashire shortly after 9pm on a cold evening in December 2022, wearing just a hospital gown.

After one hour and 20 minutes of directed searching, with no trace of the patient, the crew returned to the last potential sighting of the man and widened their search along rural country lanes.

Using their thermal imagery kit, the crew spotted a heat source in a ditch, under a tree, on a narrow lane, set back from the main road. They identified the missing man lying in the ditch, struggling to move and in a critical condition.

Ground patrols were directed to him but they were unable to lift him from the ditch because he had sustained a pelvic fracture.

He was only mildly responsive and was showing signs of hypothermia.

With no immediate ambulance available, the aircrew took the collective decision to land on a nearby football pitch and give the aircraft’s onboard stretcher to officers, enabling them to lift the man and convey him to hospital, most likely saving his life.

The benefit of fixed wing

Unlike a helicopter, which has about two hours flying time before it needs to refuel, our aeroplanes can stay airborne for up to eight hours.

This gives them great resilience – especially when it comes to policing large-scale events, protracted public order incidents and pre-planned operations.

It also means that, once in flight, the aircraft can remain in the air for almost a full shift, transitting from one job to the next.

In 2022/23, 65.1% of deployments for the fixed wing fleet occurred whilst in flight, compared to 30.1% for our rotary aircraft.

With the ability to reach areas in the North East, North West, East Midlands and West Midlands regions in 20 minutes, and areas within all other regions in 60 minutes, the aircraft complement the service delivered by our rotary fleet and offer additional resource options for our Operations Centre dispatchers. They are especially suited to operations in suburban and rural areas.

An example of the fleet’s unique value was evidenced in May 2022 when NPAS 54 lifted from Doncaster Sheffield Airport to complete an intelligence-gathering tasking in Essex.

Almost immediately on taking off, the crew was alerted to a tracker activation in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, and located a stolen camper van as suspects were changing the vehicle's identification.

As the crew completed their Essex tasking, they were diverted to help in the search for a suicidal woman near Tiverton, Devon. Thankfully they located her.

On their return to Doncaster, the crew dropped on a suspect vehicle which contained a man wanted by Devon and Cornwall Police. Ground units were directed to the vehicle and, deploying a pincer movement on country lanes, they stopped the car and detained the suspect.

Public events policing

2022 saw some of the largest public events in recent history.

The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 brought the country together in mourning and mobilised one of the largest policing operations in the city of London, as world dignitaries and members of the public gathered for her state funeral.

Whilst well-rehearsed and immaculately planned, delivering vital air support still came with its challenges with one aircraft deployed and a second on standby to cover refuelling requirements.

Our NPAS crews were available round-the-clock to offer discreet support to the Metropolitan Police Service, providing safe monitoring of the movement of Heads of State and an aerial view of events, with real-time downlinks to the ground operations control room.

Over a ten-day period, we made 32 flights, totalling 34 hours, which included flying for over 11 hours on the day of the funeral.

In July and August 2022, Birmingham hosted the Commonwealth Games, welcoming thousands of world class athletes to the West Midlands and attracting an audience of 1.5 million ticketed spectators.

For events on public roads, such as the cycle race, our fixed wing and rotary aircraft gave combined aerial support for over 13 hours.

Throughout the year, our air support extended across a range of national events, from the Grand National race meeting at Aintree to championship football tournaments in the UK's largest cities.

There is little doubt, NPAS provides a reliable, high-quality service as part of our national efforts to keep the public safe during large-scale events.