The Associated Press
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) - Harrison County officials hope to find a buyer for a twin-engine airplane being sold to help pay for needed patrol cars for county deputies.
Mechanics at Apollo Aviation recently completed repairing a crippled engine on the Beechcraft King Air, a 10-seater the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department used for about a year to transport inmates.
Aviation records show numerous other items are listed to be checked or repaired before the plane is ready to fly.
The sheriff’s department hopes the airplane will bring $700,000 to $750,000.
“The county got the airplane free, totally free,” said Maj. Julian Allen, who piloted the plane for the department and now directs law enforcement training.
Previously, the airplane belonged to the U.S. Army, which declared it surplus. The Sheriff’s Department acquired the King Air, after filling out the appropriate state paperwork, from the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics.
Somehow, the airplane transfer surfaced during a federal investigation of an Air National Guard unit in Meridian. After records were checked and inquiries made, the transaction was found to be aboveboard.
King Air was grounded during this period. It has been sitting in a hangar since shortly after an engine broke down during an inmate extradition in February 2001.
“It’s sad for a pilot to look at an airplane just sitting there like that,” Allen said.
No one is sure when the remaining work and four inspections will be finished or how much it will cost. But sheriff’s deputies are counting on the money in the face of a tight 2004-05 budget.
Of 50 cars in the patrol division, 15 to 20 need to be replaced, said Maj. Richard Smith, sheriff’s director of administration. Some of the odometers are hitting 300,000 miles.
The department hopes the plane will fetch enough money for 20 cars.
“We’re going to replace the clunkers we have on the road,” Smith said. “Clunkers is probably a generous word to use.”