Georgian Gov’t plans to sell a Super Puma helicopter to buy three instead – PM Garibashvili

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Monday that the current authorities had plans to sell a Super Puma helicopter bought under the United National Movement Government in 2011 to its manufacturer to buy three helicopters instead which would be used in rescue and other operations, claiming that the Super Puma was “useless in such operations” and was a “luxurious” item of the former Government. 

The PM said that the country’s Interior and Finance ministries were engaged with talks to ensure the sale of the helicopter, in his comments on recent forest fires in the country and criticism voiced by the part of the public towards the authorities that the country lacked helicopters to tinley address fires or carry out necessary rescue operations. 

The Ministry of Internal Affairs also talked about the sale of the helicopter  in 2017, when the rescuers were unable to use helicopters to extinguish a fire on the slopes of Mtatsminda, in Tbilisi. 

According to Ioseb Arjevanishvili, an aviation pilot of the Ministry of Internal Affairs border police, said then that the statue body was planning to modify the Super Puma type aircraft, and a contract was signed with Eurocopter for this. 

However, as reported, the company was against conversion of the said type of helicopters for rescue. However, after the company joined another company, Airbus, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was conducting negotiations to convert one of the Super Pumas into a rescue helicopter.

The Government of Georgia announced in 2013 that it had decided to sell two Super Puma helicopters. However, it said that the price paid for them was so high that  it was  difficult to find a potential buyer, and well-known dealers in the international market refused to buy them at that price.