Latest update June 1st, 2026 12:37 AM
Training of police Aircraft Pilots in limbo
It has been one year since the Guyana Police Force selected 15 of its ranks to undergo training to become aircraft pilots but the plans appear to be in limbo.
The initiative was in response to a challenge thrown out by President Donald Ramotar during his address to officers at the Annual Police Officers Conference last year.
The training should have commenced this year as long as funds were provided in the 2014 national budget; and of course no funds were provided in this year’s estimates for the programme.
In May last year, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee said that police ranks at the level of cadets will be trained at the Art Williams and Harry Wendt Aeronautical Engineering School and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).
Rohee said that the objective is to establish an Aeronautical Branch of the GPF so it could own and operate its own aircraft.
Several senior police officers are a bit uneasy that such an important aspect of the force’s development is being treated with scant regard.
“The administration is just giving lip service to the development of the force,” one officer said. Subsequent to the conference, messages were disseminated for ranks with the requisite qualifications to apply to participate in the training activities.
Applications were received from a number of ranks and interviews were conducted. In the end, 15 officers were selected and are now ready to be trained.
The ranks identified by the force for the training, were interviewed a year ago by prominent local aviator Captain Gerry Gouveia, who yesterday said that he had no idea when the programme would get underway.
“I did the shortlisting (last year) and I haven’t heard back from the police. I did what I had to do,” Gouveia told Kaieteur News, adding that he highly recommends and supports the programme.
He stated that for the police to effectively provide security in the hinterland, there is a definite need for them to mobilize more air support.
He is impressed by the enthusiasm shown by the ranks who were selected for the programme.
“It is a highly required skill and the young men were some very good young men, I don’t know why they (the police force) did not follow up,” Gouveia stated.
Former Commissioner of Police and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament, Winston Felix, is also supportive of the programme.
He said that Guyana needs a policy to address the issue of crime and it should include air, land and sea assets to fight crime in the interior.
“In the sprawling hinterland community there is need for an aircraft. The police should have adequate vessels and vehicles and the force itself should have increased numbers that it can maintain a fighting strength to deal with the issues of the day,” he said.
While the aircraft pilot training for police ranks appears to have been shelved for a while, their counterparts in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) continue to benefit from programmes in the field of aeronautics
However, the GDF is hoping to have its Skyvan back in operation soon especially since the Force’s Cessna 206 went down few weeks ago, incurring extensive damage. The Force is currently without its own operational fixed-wing carrier, but will have to use the service of private carriers should the need arise in monitoring and protecting the country’s 83,000 square miles.
Apart from the fixed-wing carriers, three helicopters, including a Bell 412, complement the army’s fleet. However, one of the helicopters is down with engine failure and is currently being looked at. The other rotary-wing carriers remain operational.
The army had earlier in the year expressed optimism about the recapitalization of the Force’s aviation arm. Deputy Chief of Staff, Colonel Khemraj Persaud had told Kaieteur News in February last, that given the positive feedback from the government, he believed that moves to better equip the country’s first line of defence “will be coming soon”.
The Colonel could not say when the Air Corps expected new or additional planes. He expressed however that the army has had its share of challenges in terms of fleet maintenance, but he was optimistic that the Force would reach a point where all the carriers were operating.
“There are always discussions with the leadership of the country and the Defence board, on the recapitalization, not only of the Air Corps, but other areas of the army,” he had stated.
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