It is vital to the nation’s firefighting effort – but Portugal’s helicopter fleet is in danger of being grounded due to over €14 million in debts stretching back almost three years.
Servicing company Heliportugal is reported to be seeking court permission to seize the fleet in return for unpaid maintenance work.
For the moment, the three lightweight choppers and six Kamovs still belong to state-run EMA (the Empresa de Meios Aéreos) – but EMA is now in a process of liquidation, and Heliportugal does not want to be left short-changed.
In a statement put out via Lusa news agency, Heliportugal says it consider’s EMA’s delay in honouring payments a “contractual disconsideration – stressing that it is now being hounded by the Ministry for Internal Administration for accounting headaches that the debt has created.
Meantime, the ANPC civil protection authority has said it will do everything to ensure the choppers continue in public service.
Although the fleet is made up of six Kamovs, only four are in service as two are “undergoing repairs”. One of these has been out of operation since being damaged in a fire in 2012.
The dire situation of the country’s helicopters came under the spotlight at the beginning of the summer when it was revealed that EMA no longer had the money to ensure them.
In fact, the choppers have been uninsured since 2011.
Carrying a report on the problems, RTP said EMA had to choose between paying for fuel, or paying for insurances.
No mention at the time was made of the unpaid maintenance costs, which Heliportugal has put at €14 million, plus another million euros in interest.
