Kosovo doesn't own helicopter to extinguish fires, KFOR intervenes

In case of crises, there is no helicopter in the field of protection, health security.

This is considered a necessity by connoisseurs of civil emergency cases. Even from the Emergency Management Agency, they say Kosovo needs to be equipped with several helicopters.

In a response to Kosovo Preress, it has become known that the supply of helicopters has been meant for three ministries, but the draft project has remained due to the financing impact.

Civil emergency issue acquaintance Tahir Ahmeti says that in recent days it has been difficult to intervene in mountainous areas due to a lack of capacity.

It's hard to intervene in mountain areas, because there are places that don't have access to fire vehicles. Then it's very difficult to get to those places, so there's always a need to be helped by air through air pouring through helicopters. And this was seen on several occasions that after the request of Kosovo institutions, KFOR, with their helicopters, as the third reacter in Kosovo, they through their helicopters made the localisation and helped extinguish the fires even though firefighters did a very big job, especially in Prevala, where for many nights they tried to locate that fire. But because of the difficult terrain it was not possible to fully locate”, Ahmeti declares.

He considers the need for Kosovo to have such air capacities necessary.

“Unfortunately that the state of Kosovo does not have a single helicopter that could be used for either the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the state protocol, as well as for such cases of extenuating air and throwing water out of the air ... It is necessary for the state of Kosovo to have one or two helicopters that in case it needs to make such interventions, then can be used for the Kosovo Army, for the Ministry of Internal Affairs”, he says.

Division leader for Legal Affairs, public and international relations at Emergency Management Agency Nehat Kocinaj declares that Kosovo needs to be equipped with several helicopters.

Kosovo needs to be equipped with several helicopters because even in the strategic review of the security sector done in 2012-2014, we have come to certain conclusions that the minimum helicopter requirements, for the Security Force, were not mentioned here because they have specific requests, but for the Kosovo Police and the Emergency Management Agency, in which case the minimum crisis has been four, now not to say six, but in no way one way. One like none. When opinion and decision-makers provide the means to secure helicopters, the entire staff, or all the support mechanisms to operate those helicopters, then it would be extenuating and necessary for response in emergency cases”, Kocinaj declares.

In a response to KosovoPress, the Health Ministry has announced that a three helicopters security initiative has been launched several years ago.

Thanking you for the issue raised, we are informing them that in 2017 an initiative was launched to provide three helicopters for three ministries, with the aim of providing line service: The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, this project has had a relatively large financial impact and has not been finalised and remains as a draft project”, said the Health Ministry's response.

Defence Minister Ejup Macedonci had declared for Kosovo Press that the envisioned phase for supply and compliance with air capacity is the third phase from 2025 to 2028.

Kosovo has no competence and is not responsible for its airspace.

In line with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the 1999 military technical agreement, but even current laws, the KFOR mission is responsible for the security of Kosovo's airspace.