The General Inspectorate of Aviation ( - IGAv) (formerly ''Special Aviation Unit'' - ''Unitatea Specială de Aviație'') is the Romanian

Ministry of Internal Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...

's air component. The unit was initially established in 1948, but restructured in 1978. It has its overall headquarters at

Aurel Vlaicu International Airport Aurel may refer to: Places * Aurel, Drôme, France * Aurel, Vaucluse, France Other uses * Aurel (given name) * Aurel Awards, a Slovak music award * AuRel, a dragon in E. E. Knight's '' Age of Fire'' series See also * Aurell, people ...

and operates five territorial flights in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

Caransebeș Caransebeș (; ; , Hungarian pronunciation: ) is a city in Caraș-Severin County, part of the Banat region in southwestern Romania. One village, Jupa (), is administered by the city. The city is located at the confluence of the Timiș River with ...

Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

and

Tulcea Tulcea (; also known by #Names, alternative names) is a city in Northern Dobruja, Romania. It is the administrative center of Tulcea County, and had a population of 65,624 . One village, Tudor Vladimirescu, is administered by the city. It is one ...

. The current General Inspector is '' General de flotilă aeriană'' Cătălin-Paul Dache.

History

Following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, it was decided to form an aviation structure that can serve the civil society. In this sense, the Air Transport Flotilla was established on 20 December 1948 at the Dudești-Cioplea airfield. Between 1949 and 1960, the unit was based on the

Popești-Leordeni Popești-Leordeni () is a town in Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania, south of downtown Bucharest, although from the northern edge of the town to the southern edge of Bucharest the distance is less than . Most of its inhabitants commute to Bucharest ...

aerodrome, then it was moved to the Otopeni airport until 1973. From 1979 on, it is located at the

. On 1 May 2008, the unit was reorganized by establishing the Aviation Inspectorate and four special aviation units subordinate to it located in Bucharest, Cluj Napoca, Iași, and Tulcea. Starting from 15 May the same year, the unit became operational.

Missions

Search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

missions. *Humanitarian and community missions. *Monitoring road

traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

. *Other special designation missions in cooperation with the

Romanian Police The Romanian Police (, , ) is the national police force and main civil law enforcement agency in Romania. It is subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and it is led by a General Inspector with the rank of Secretary of State. Duties T ...

Gendarmerie A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (). In France and so ...

Romanian Intelligence Service The Romanian Intelligence Service (, abbreviated SRI) is Romania's main domestic intelligence service. Its role is to gather information relevant to national security and hand it over to relevant institutions, such as Romanian Government, presid ...

Structure and equipment

Besides the five Special Aviation units (located in Bucharest, Caransebeș, Cluj-Napoca, Iași and Tulcea), the Inspectorate also has a Training and Development Detachment located in Bucharest (''Detașamentul de Instruire și Perfecționare București''), and an Aeromedical Detachment (''Detașamentul Aeromedical'').

Aeromedical Detachment

The Aeromedical Detachment, is a structure subordinated to the General Inspectorate of Aviation tasked with humanitarian life-saving missions. It performs flight missions as the air operator of the SMURD. The SMURD HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical System) bases are led by commanders appointed by the General Inspector of the General Aviation Inspectorate, while the personnel who perform the on-call service for the intervention are designated by the cooperating structures.

Equipment

Over the course of its history, the aviation structure operated various types of aircraft:

Ju 52 The Junkers Ju 52/3m (nicknamed ''Tante Ju'' ("Aunt Ju") and ''Iron Annie'') is a transport aircraft that was designed and manufactured by German aviation company Junkers. First introduced during 1930 as a civilian airliner, it was adapted int ...

, Lockheed 10, Fiesler Storch, Fleet 10,

Po-2 Po2, pO2, , or PO2 may refer to: * A military rank: ** Petty Officer 2nd Class in the Canadian military ** Petty Officer Second Class in the United States military * Polikarpov Po-2 or U-2, a Soviet aeroplane * Partial pressure of Oxygen, that is, ...

Klemm Kl 25 Klemm L 25, later Klemm Kl 25 is a successful German light leisure, sports and training monoplane aircraft, developed in 1928. More than 600 aircraft were built, and manufacturing licenses were sold to the United Kingdom and the United States. ...

Klemm Kl 35 The Klemm Kl 35 is a German sporting and training aeroplane developed as a successor to the Kl 25. A product of Klemm Leichtflugzeugbau Gmbh it shared the same single-engine, cantilever low-wing configuration as the earlier machine, the major ...

Heinkel He 111 The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and medium bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Due to restrictions placed on Germany a ...

, Bücker Jungmeister,

Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun The Messerschmitt Bf 108 ''Taifun'' (English: "Typhoon") is a single-engine sport and touring aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). It was the first aircraft of its size to feature all ...

RWD 8 The RWD 8 was a Polish parasol wing monoplane trainer aircraft produced by RWD. It was used from 1934 to 1939 by the Polish Air Force and civilian aviation. Development The RWD 8 was designed in response to a Polish Air Force requirement in 19 ...

RWD 13 The RWD 13 was a Polish touring plane of 1935, three-seater high-wing monoplane, designed by the RWD team. It was the biggest commercial success of the RWD. Development The RWD 13 was a touring plane, developed from a line of sports planes RWD ...

, RWD-14,

Aero L-60 Brigadýr The Aero L-60 Brigadýr () was a small, high-wing Propeller (aircraft), propeller-driven Czechoslovak STOL utility aircraft developed for both civil and military use. A prototype, designated XL-60, with Argus As 10C engine, first flew on Decemb ...

Aero 45 The Aero 45 was a twin piston-engined civil utility aircraft produced in Czechoslovakia after World War II. Aero Vodochody produced the aircraft in 1947–1951, after which the Let Kunovice rolled out these planes until 1961. In 1958 the Ae-45S ...

Li-2 The Lisunov Li-2 (NATO reporting name: Cab), originally designated PS-84, was a license-built Soviet-version of the Douglas DC-3. It was produced by Factory #84 in Khimki, Moscow-Khimki and, after the factory's evacuation in 1941, at the Tash ...

An-2 The Antonov An-2 ( USAF/DoD reporting name Type 22, NATO reporting name Colt) is a Soviet mass-produced single-engine biplane utility/agricultural aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design Bureau beginning in 1947. Its durabili ...

, and BN-2. Currently, there are 5 types of helicopters and four airplanes in service: In 2021, seven S-70M Black Hawk built by

PZL Mielec PZL Mielec (''Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze'' - Polish Aviation Works), formerly WSK-Mielec (''Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego'') and WSK "PZL-Mielec" is a Polish aerospace manufacturer based in Mielec. It is the largest aerospace manufacturer i ...

were purchased. A total of 12 Black Hawks desired. First Black Hawk was delivered in November 2023, with the last being delivered in December.

References

External links

Official website
{{Military institutions in Romania Police aviation Romanian Police National law enforcement agencies of Romania Aviation in Romania