This is the luxury $ 12 million Italian helicopter that the Presidency acquired during the pandemic

The dissident senator of the U Party, Roy Barreras, revealed in the debate on the motion of censure against the Minister of Defense, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, the purchase, by the government of President Iván Duque, of an Italian helicopter AgustaWestland AW-139 for 12 million dollars. This would be one of the “surprises” of the Trujillo administration that Barreras anticipated to the public hours before the debate.

To the purchase of the aircraft, the senator added that the Presidency currently had two helicopters and that the purchase of the AW-139, in a pandemic, was an unnecessary expense on the part of the national government.

He also recalled the tragic accident of the presidential helicopter BEL-412, in October 2019, which claimed six lives of Army soldiers and where, according to Barreras, Trujillo “has not told Colombians why the helicopter fell. That would be enough to stop being Minister of Defense. The President of the Republic could have been killed, Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez would be governing, ”he said.

Given this, The head of the Defense portfolio said that the helicopter that was bought in the middle of the pandemic was acquired with the insurance money that the previous aircraft had and that no money was touched from the public portfolio.

On August 25, a source from the Colombian Air Force told El Tiempo that the purchase was made through the insurance policy of the BEL-412 that crashed. This source reiterated that there was no government expense and that no further details of the purchase will be provided.

Is it as luxurious as Barreras claims?

The aircraft, which was introduced to the market in 2003, is manufactured in Italy by the Leonardo company, formerly AgustaWestland. It is a helicopter powered by two engines and is configured with sophisticated technology, including the Honeywell Primus Epic system, which controls the automatic flight of the spacecraft.

It has two configurations, a VIP, which accommodates 12 passengers, or a standard with a capacity of 15. Its design is designed for comfortable charter flights that allow covering long routes of up to six hours, as it has the highest range of medium helicopters.

The main users of these aircraft are the Italian Air Force, the air units of the Irish Army and the Air Force of the United Arab Emirates. However, several Latin American governments have acquired this type of ship; among them, Panama, Chile and Brazil. In addition to official use, the AW-139 is available on various helicopter rental portals for charter use.

One of the concerns that Senator Barreras expressed, when evidencing the acquisition of the aircraft, was its price, which is approximately 12 million pesos. According to the Aircraft Cost Calculator portal, based on 450 annual flight hours and a cost of 16,000 pesos per gallon of gasoline, the Agusta Westland AW-139 has annual operating maintenance that costs approximately 5,183 million pesos, that is, almost 11 million pesos per hour.