We’ve seen the Erie County Sheriff’s original Air One in the skies for over two decades now. But that old airframe is showing its age in mechanical down time as opposed to useful flight service for rescuing victims with its hoist or providing an aerial surveillance platform to track down stolen cars and thieves.<\/p>\n
\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.wgrz.com\/assets\/shared-images\/icons\/arrow-circle-down.svg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n
\n This story continues below.
<\/p>\n
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia points out that: “In 2025 it was grounded for ten months out of 12 so it basically did not exist.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two brand new Airbus H 125 choppers delivered to the county for over $7 million dollars earlier this year are now requiring outfitting with avionics (such as dual flight controls and autopilot and then law enforcement specific gear like navigation\/terrain devices, searchlights, and infrared cameras) that allow the onboard pilot and tactical flight officer (observer) to see individuals in the dark like released video of a\u00a0recent Lake Erie ice fishermen rescue. <\/a><\/p>\n To cover that cost there is now federal funding as explained by U.S. Representative Nick Langworthy (R -23rd District\/Clarence-Corning): “We secured and signed into law and the monies are working their way to Erie County – 4.2 million dollars towards the acquisition and outfitting of not one helicopter Sheriff – as the plan changes along the way – \u00a0but two new helicopters that you see behind us.” \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That money would be used as a pass through in a county contract for a company to actually do that outfitting on the new “bare bones” choppers and it must be issued through the county legislature.<\/p>\n Late last year there was a funding dispute between the county comptroller’s office and sheriff’s office over this more than $7 million helicopter purchase but now that is apparently resolved.\u00a0<\/p>\n This two helicopter upgrade actually happened after the sheriff’s office at first wanted a much more expensive bigger H-135 helicopter and then changed course. It is for what Sheriff Garcia says is a regional law enforcement asset: “We got two for the price of one – it was a blessing. Because now we can alternate the scheduled maintenance – we have continuous coverage. Also reaching out to my colleagues in the adjoining counties and say if you need help – you reach out.” \u00a0<\/p>\n The original Air One is still in service for now until the outfitting for the two new helicopters is done. They are hoping that can happen before the end of the year through a specialized contractor in Michigan, California, or elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then the original Air One will be put up for sale for as much as $800,000 to perhaps a million dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EC Legislature must issue contract to use $4.2 million from Washington for equipment BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 For two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-184866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}