Passers-by near Evere, Belgium looked up in surprise as this Belgian Police Air Support MD900 Explorer helicopter (registered OO-POH or G-12) was transported from Melsbroek (Brussels Airport) to Zellik last Wednesday (14 October).
Ben Van Lint, in the right place at the right time, was able to capture this exceptional transport and explains: “I talked with the police officer guiding the truck, the helicopter is going to Zellik. A different, yet pleasant surprise!”
This Belgian Police Air Support (Directie Luchtsteun or DAFA) is a specialised police force providing aerial assistance to Federal and Local police corps.
not corpses – the English plural of Corps is the same as the French- corpses are dead bodies.
Thanks for the remark, corrected!
The bigger question is: Why is it going to Zellik for maintenance?
Does McDonnell Douglas or Boeing have a maintenance facility there or is the Zellik location the government and Army site used for general engineering training (where the airframes are kept in storage)?
Is G-12 being retired will it return to service?
Good question! To Ben Van Lint, the police officer said: maintenance. But I will investigate!
And… btw why by road and not by air. (Maintenance must be planned)
A quick Google-search has taught me that there is a (car) body shop (Vannerum/Helipoint) that has a specialisation in Helicopter-customization.
Perhaps this is the reason?
source: https://www.vannerum.be/nl/helicopters
I’m not so sure about the ‘OO-POH’ civil registration you mention in the article. In the early days G-12 also carried the call-sign ‘OT-GIC’, not sure if this is still used.
I checked the official Belgian civil register and also there is no sign of a ‘OO-POH’ !
Hello Laurent, I found the registration on this website: https://www.helispot.be/hs/helicopters/detail.asp?id=C3F4f6
Hi Laurent,
When the Rijkswacht was de-militarised their helicopters lost their ‘OT-GIC’ military registration and they all got a civil one.
The G-12 is the call-sign and the OO-POH is the registration in the Belgian Civil Aviation Register. The registration is not shown publicly as you can derive the hex-code from the registration and follow the helicopter with an ADSB receiver (what the police doesn’t like).
Bit of a bizar rule as you still can follow them on ADSB with their G-registration…. Any idea if the Cessna’s have this registration as well and eventually which one ?
This biggest question is : waarom was nonze Ben bezet aan fotos te nemen en ni aan t’werken ?