At the end of September, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) confirmed the delivery of the new aircraft: “As it stands, the second helicopter is scheduled to arrive in the Cayman Islands following all servicing and pre-delivery checks at the start of December 2019. It might be helpful to note that the additional personnel required to facilitate the deployment of the second helicopter have now been employed by RCIPS.”

The new personnel that the RCIPS refer to is the force’s first female pilot, Elaine Hunter, who previously worked as an air ambulance pilot for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance based in the UK, and began working with the RCIPS Air Operations Unit earlier this month, where she aided in rescue operations for the Bahamas.

Replacing the EC135 helicopter that suffered a technical failure back in February and has since been removed from service, the new H145 will be fully funded by the Cayman Islands Government and will work alongside the current H145 in providing medical evacuations and other emergency response services.