“The Aircraft is in Good Order and Safe to Fly”——A Safety Message from BPAU

By Ge Lin

"Tower No.1, PA01 has moved into position and requests clearance for take-off."

"Cleared for take-off."

"Roger."

It's a stunning sight to see pilots with the Police Aviation Unit of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau maneuvering their helicopters across the Beijing skyline. But though much of the spotlight falls on master pilots in crisp uniforms, behind the scenes are teams of conscientious ground crews working quietly to provide a safety net for each operation. This is how the BPAU safeguards the city.

On a sunny day this late autumn, the Beijing Police Aviation Unit prepares for its aerial patrol above Beijing's northern suburbs. On the parking apron three police helicopters are on standby, and bustling inside and outside the hangar are Aircraft Maintenance Detachment officers applying the crucial final touches in preparation for take-off.

There are 31 officers in the Aircraft Maintenance Detachment of the BPAU, performing routine maintenance, regular overhaul, troubleshooting, parts replacement for all the police helicopters in the unit's service, alongside other tasks such as processing and translating correspondence and maintenance manuals.

The detachment is acknowledged as the most dedicated division in the Beijing Police Aviation Unit.Driven by a sense of meticulous craftsmanship, the detachment's members always aim for "zero error"operations and keep forever in mind their obligation to protect both the helicopters and pilots.

Officers of the BPAU have delivered top rate performances in an array of major security and maintenance missions since the unit's inception.By 2022, the team had flown service missions for a combined 15,000 accident-free hours, with an average of 1,500 flight hours annually in 2018 and 2019, the highest of all its peers nationwide. The BPAU has also dispatched officers to other provinces many times to assist local police with their aviation improvements.Moreover, the unit's self-trained translators have acquired a good knowledge of aviation English used to identify sophisticated fuselage-borne equipment and carry out aircraft flights, maintenance and rescue missions. Due to their stellar performance in processing English technical reports and translating various manuals and technical emails, they have won wide recognition from the Ministry of Public Security and other police aviation departments.

Preparing a helicopter for take-off is a complex and technical procedure, but Chen Faguo and his colleagues always appear competent and composed around their"beloved kids": removing the inlet cover and airspeed sleeve, checking the voltage and fuel level, testing the machine performance, opening the main firing…before finally filling out the take-off clearance slip.

"Yes, the helicopters are just like our children. If we take good care of them, they will look after us in return,"Chen says with a shy smile.

Officers of the detachment mainly come from two sources: aviation college graduates and demobilized air force veterans. Chen Faguo, 57, was transferred here after his air force service in 2006. Before that, Chen had spent 24 years servicing fighters, air freighters,and helicopters as an engineer of avionics systems and a chief technician. "I was with the detachment from the very beginning when it had only six officers and four helicopters. Time does fly. Just like that, I've been working around aircrafts for 40 years," Chen reminisces.

"In the face of ever-changing aeronautic technologies, we as aircraft maintenance officers must embrace lifelong learning for new concepts and technologies," says Chen. He has practiced what he preaches: he learned Russian and English on his own during his military service and passed the mid-level technical qualification test at a young age. Though he is now 57, he still keeps the habit of memorizing a few new English words every day. Normally, a single helicopter comes with five or six thick flight instruction manuals, all in foreign languages, but Chen has memorized them all. In his spare time he flips through work journals he updates every day; he has accumulated nearly 20 volumes over years, all safely stored on his bookcase.

Chen enjoys hanging out with his younger colleagues—playing basketball, chatting, and discussing technical skills—as he hopes to pass on to them valuable wisdom from his years of experience. The young officers look up to Chen as a genuine craftsman who has dedicated half of his life to aircraft; likewise,Chen enjoys his young colleagues for their inquisitive minds, which, in his words, represent hope for the future.

Xue Hongli is Chen's apprentice, handpicked by Chen from the Aircraft Power Engineering Department of Civil Aviation Flight College of China. Xue, in his early 30s, is a competent and down-to-earth young man according to Chen. As any aircraft workers knows, once a helicopter is out of the hangar, whether it's taxiing,taking-off or landing, the maintenance detachment will be monitoring. That's why maintenance officers are always the first to arrive at the hangar and the last to leave. Xue started work as a maintenance officer in 2014 and has now become chief mechanic of the sole upgraded 109SP helicopter in the unit. When asked about his changed professional role, Xue gets a little emotional: "Bent on manufacturing aircraft years ago, I ended up as a technician servicing them instead. There is a saying in our detachment, which describes our responsibilities as protecting both the helicopters and the pilots. I think it's a strong statement in support of my belief that aircraft manufacturing and maintenance are equally important."

Maintenance officers are not only problem identifiers but also problem solvers. At the end of 2021,Xue successfully detected, and then promptly addressed, a failure of an aircraft's hydraulic system before it caused any damage. He described the whole incident as just a part of his duty: "It's our responsibility to ensure the aircraft a real ways in airworthy condition,preparing them before airborne missions and servicing them in other times. We can't make even the slightest mistakes, for our comrades' lives are in our hands."

During the monsoon season in 2018, floods hit the mountainous areas of Beijing's Miyun District and caused serious damage to vital infrastructure. Since ground transportation was cut off, the Beijing Municipal Emergency Response Office and the Beijing Public Security Bureau decided to introduce helicopters into their emergency response plan so that the disaster-hit areas could have quicker access to rescue workers and relief. The BPAU acted correspondingly and launched three of their helicopters for the rescue mission.

The BPAU conducted 18 flights in just one day,with a total flight time of nearly nine hours, transporting seven paramedics and 51 rescue workers along with fire-fighting equipment, and saving over 10 victims,including a two-month-old baby.

Li Mu, deputy director of the maintenance detachment, was part of the rescue mission and he recalled, "It was a big test of our professionalism, as we had to respond to the emergency at very short notice and make smooth and swift helicopter maneuvers in precarious conditions." Fully aware of the critical nature of safety, a point emphasized repeatedly in the Police Aviation Flight Safety Guidelines, Li added, "Our colleagues trust us with their lives and we will protect them at the expense of our own. It's true we can't be up there in the sky, but on our shoulders we carry ladders for steadily supporting our colleagues up there."

"The aircraft is in good order and safe to fly." This phrase comes up frequently in Chen Faguo's work journal. Compared to the heroic dreams of soaring into the sky, the job of the maintenance officers may seem simple and mundane, but it epitomizes the police's commitment to serve the people whole-heartedly. Each helicopter's safe lift-off and smooth return can inspire pride and confidence among all the BPAU officers.

The Beijing Police Aviation Squad, the precursor to the BPAU, took shape in April, 2007 and was officially named, concurrently, the "Beijing Police Aviation Unit" and the "Aviation Division of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality" on July 16,2011. On November 9, 2021, it was endowed with new responsibilities and got another official name: "Beijing Aviation Emergency Rescue Service." The tech-savvy unit has accomplished hundreds of major missions with its helicopters, including aerial patrols, policing directions, criminal investigations, anti-terrorism operations, smuggling and drug-trafficking crackdowns,emergency rescues, forest and fire protection. A decade of development has turned it into a modern police aviation fleet with multiple aircraft models and many high-caliber officers. During the Beijing Olympic Summer Games in 2008, it carried out successful routine aerial patrols above the Olympic torch relay routes and the Olympic venues. In 2012, it set up an air command platform in collaboration with Beijing's traffic control departments, finally making it possible to coordinate aerial traffic controls during rush hour in the capital. In 2022, it again made a huge contribution to the Beijing Olympic Winter Games by providing security and image-transmission services during the opening and closing ceremonies.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, China's National Day and any other public holidays when most people get together with their families, the police aviation officers are still out on the road or up in the sky honoring their commitment to safeguarding the nation and the people.

(The author is affiliated with the Beijing Public Security Bureau)

(Translated by Chen Xiaoying, School of Foreign Languages, Beijing Forestry University)