The Air Operations Unit of the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) will receive a King Air aircraft equipped with radar in October to maintain security in of Eastern Sabah Safety Zone placed under the supervision of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom).     

Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said the addition of the asset was done based on the terrain factor in the east coast which required monitoring from the air.

“Currently, PDRM have 10 helicopters, three units of Beechcraft King Air 350, Cessna Caravan (six units) and Pilatus (five) based in Sabah, Sarawak, Ipoh and Sungai Besi,” he told reporters in Ipoh today.

Meanwhile, he said PDRM had made an application to the government to increase the transportation assets with another four medium-sized and 14 small-sized helicopters.

“The application is made to strengthen police deployment while improving service to the community,” he said.

He said, with the additional aircraft, it would facilitate the police in bringing patients to hospitals from a location that ground transportation could not access.

In addition, he said the police would also make an application to the Civil Aviation Department to train police officers as helicopter pilots.

- Bernama