The used helicopter "Bell-412 EP" which was purchased by the Ministry of Defense and which was ceremonially welcomed at the "Golubovci" airport as an officially new aircraft, has a very interesting history because it was this helicopter that established the trend of covert use of specially equipped airfields by the state 15 years ago. services of the USA, for sometimes illegal surveillance and spying on its own citizens.
In 2003, the "new" Montenegrin helicopter was used as the originator of the practice of US state agencies giving specially equipped aircraft a false identity and monitoring even the most private activities of citizens, with the justification that they are doing so because of the fight against terrorism.
This was hidden from the American public for a long time, but the media there "broke the story" and, on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act, received documents from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that confirmed the validity of the terror about a "big brother" watching citizens from the air.
The practice was first introduced in the USA by the largest police administration there - the New York Police (NYPD), which is a leader in that country when it comes to new technology and methods of crime prevention and combat.
According to the American magazine "Wired", in 2003, the New York police purchased a "Bell 412 EP" serial number 36307 from the company "Bell Textron Helicopters", which was manufactured a few months earlier in Fort Worth, Texas.
Last weekend, that helicopter officially became the property of the Air Force of VCG by signing the handover protocol between the buyer - the Ministry of Defense and the seller - the Canadian Economic Corporation.
15 years ago, the New York Police Department equipped the New York Police Department with the most modern video and electronic surveillance equipment available, with a new helicopter purchased with grant money from the US Department of Justice.
The new aircraft, which cost 10 million dollars with equipment, was then presented to the media there, but they did not fully tell them about its true purpose and what its possibilities are in collecting data and intruding into the private lives of New York citizens.
Until a few years ago, the NYPD's practice of deliberately leaving its "flying spy" without the official markings of its helicopter unit, under civilian registration and with fictitious ownership of the aircraft by a non-existent private company, in order to conceal its true nature, remained a secret. , operator and purpose.
The head of the New York Police Department at the time, Ray Kelly, said that the new and most sophisticated helicopter that any police administration in the US had would be used in the fight against crime, search and rescue missions, but also that it would "play a key role in anti-terrorist efforts".
That key role came down to the unique capabilities of the special photo, video and electronic signal collection equipment installed in that helicopter, which until 2015 was used by the NYPD - high-resolution cameras could from a distance of over 300 meters "recognize every line on the face of people on the streets below the aircraft or record visitors on the Statue of Liberty from a distance of 2,5 kilometers".
The New York police changed the civil registration of this helicopter N2411X, with the FAA, to a special one, for the NYPD, symbolic N23FH (Fallen Heroes - fallen heroes, in memory of the 23 members of the NYPD who died in the Al Qaeda attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 2001).
NYPD Deputy Director Joseph Gallucci then requested the FAA in an official letter that the change in the helicopter's registration be done in a "confidential manner", but also that the FAA "immediately report to the NYPD any possible expression of interest from individuals and organizations in the aircraft" with with that new label.
The NYPD, as the owner of the helicopter, established a fictitious company called "Montero Inc" in Brooklyn, at an address that contained only a post office box. Based on a request for free access to information from the FAA, "Wired" obtained papers related to the change in the license plates of the "flying spy" of the New York police, as well as the certificates that the FAA had to issue for numerous changes to the serial equipment and construction of that aircraft, which are on the shift had to be carried out for the installation of special equipment for video and electronic surveillance.
From those certificates came a detailed and complete list of special surveillance equipment installed in the helicopter, which included video and thermal cameras for recording in day and night conditions, radio goniometers for receiving the signals of GPS tracking devices secretly installed on suspicious vehicles, a computer system which, via GPS, automatically focused the helicopter's camera on the given address and much more... The helicopter, which had two flight crew members and two surveillance system operators in the passenger cabin behind the pilot, was used in numerous NYPD actions, so and for securing the visit of former Pope Benedict XVI to New York. The publication of data on the true nature and purpose of that aircraft, which followed only in 2008, raised concerns among the local public that the technical capabilities of the "flying spy" of the NYPD were used beyond legal powers and activities in the fight against crime and terrorism, which are police officials demated.
"Of course, we don't peek into citizens' apartments. We do not violate people's privacy. We just want to observe what is happening in public areas and in public," said John Diazo, the crew chief of the special helicopter. However, not long after that, by chance and thanks to the circumstance that one of the participants of the protest on the streets of New York who was arrested, and by law asked the police to show a video from a helicopter from the disputed event, it turned out to be the "flying shin" who now flies for the VCG Air Force used at least once for illegal violation of citizens' privacy.
Namely, on August 27, 2004, while filming a protest in the streets, the operator in the helicopter pointed one of the thermal imaging cameras at the balcony of a luxury apartment in one of the nearby buildings. For the next four minutes, the police helicopter filmed the sexual relationship between the owner of the apartment - a wealthy New York music producer and his girlfriend - on the balcony. Later, when everything was known, the producer said that he had no idea that he was being filmed from the police helicopter because it was already dark outside, and he and the girl on the balcony were behind an awning with curtains. Nevertheless, the special thermovision camera from the state "flying spy" recorded citizens in the most private of all possible private activities...
The NYPD later apologized to the public that "sometimes they record activities on the balconies and roofs of buildings, if they think that someone from there could threaten police officers or people on the street by throwing an object." "In this particular case from 2004, the police officer in the helicopter was ordered to stop filming as soon as it was determined that no such threat existed," an NYPD spokesperson explained. Despite the suspicion that the "flying spy" was used in numerous other cases of violation of privacy and illegal surveillance of citizens, the NYPD refused all requests to provide precise information about the activities of that controversial aircraft that has now ended up in Montenegro.
The spy equipment from 2003 is gone, but...
The probability that the helicopter that once spied on New Yorkers and now flies in Montenegro has any of the special equipment from 2003 is almost non-existent, because that electronics and equipment has become completely obsolete in the meantime.
Another reason is that, before they sold it to Montenegro, the Americans last year tried to revive that outdated aircraft for completely "benign" purposes such as spraying mosquitoes, where it is logical that there would be nothing on it in that case from "special purpose" complex electronics.
"Vijesti" has a memorandum dated June 20, 2017, in which one of the managers of the district Service for Pollination of Mosquitoes and other Harmful Insects (CMCD), from Colliers County in the American state of Florida, asks the members of the Board of Directors of that state institution to consider the purchase of one of two "Bell-412 EP" helicopters, which were proposed to them by the section of the "Bell Helicopters" company, which deals with the resale of used aircraft of that manufacturer.
One of them is the "new" helicopter of the Army of Montenegro, "Bell-412", factory number 36307.
In the description of that aircraft and its equipment, there is no mention of any of the special devices installed in 2003. It says that the helicopter was manufactured in 2002 and that by the summer of last year it had a total of 1.834 flight hours and 4.637 take-offs and landings.
In the official offer for sale sent to CMCD by Erik Sišan from the "Bell Pre-Owned" sector of used helicopters of the "Bell Helicopters" company, it is also stated that "minor and cosmetic repairs on the fuselage and tail rotor beam of the aircraft will be completed during 2017" , and that the floor of the helicopter cabin had already been repainted the year before.
"The aircraft has just undergone an extensive inspection and service that is performed every 5 years or 5.000 flight hours, at the Bel Piney Flats service, with many new parts being replaced and installed. According to the data available to us, the aircraft has not suffered any damage during its use so far," it says, among other things, in the offer sent by "Bell Helicopters" to CMCD, setting the price for this aircraft at 5.495.000 dollars.
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