StarFlight achieves 15,000 flying hours with VicPol

StarFlight’s Victoria Police’s helicopter fleet has claimed top spot internationally for average flight hours per year (2024) by a Leonardo AW 139 for law enforcement operations.

It comes as the fleet achieved a major milestone with 15,000 airborne hours since take-off in 2020.

Crucial to its success is a team of dedicated and experienced StarFlight Victoria engineers working 24/7 to keep the helicopters serviceable, ensuring availability and reliability to Victoria Police.

For every flying hour, five hours of engineering manpower is required by the team which works on various aspects of helicopter engineering including structural, mechanical and avionics.

More than 100,0000 engineering hours have been clocked up, including 53 heavy maintenance inspections, 57,000 work cards and 11 modification requests.

The aircraft are fitted with advanced infrared cameras and mapping systems, as well as object detection software, which assists with marine and land-based searches.

StarFlight Victoria Director Ashley van de Velde, said the milestone further demonstrated the company’s commitment to keeping Victorians safe.

“StarFlight Victoria support VicPol as world leaders in surveillance aviation and aeromedicine and this achievement is testament to the commitment of the crews who work to ensure excellence across the fleet,” he said.