it's almost 2:00 in the morning on the m25 the driver of a stolen Fiat is trying to shake off the traffic police [Music] that a thousand feet above a police helicopter has him on its thermal imaging camera the car thief has two passengers a man and a woman he's been chased through two counties hartfordshire and Essex to this point [Music] this housing estate in East London is where all three live and where they hoped to hide tonight London sky cops are put under pressure by dangerous drivers who run them ragged by potential new recruits who aren't sure they want to fly and by pepcid bombing rioters who want what they seem [Music] [Music] [Music] in East London the two men and a woman who ran away from the stolen Fiat have managed to lose the police officers who were chasing them but they haven't lost the sky cops one of the fugitives has previous convictions for theft and burglary rear-seat air observer pc chard is now in command of the effort to catch all three we've got the window it was in total darkness in fact you couldn't even see it was a canal it was just pitch black but from the camera you could see where they were and you can see where they were running two walls they went to ground Monica now paint my garden there that gives us a bit of time to look at them out then decide okay how we're going to contain this and get Eunice the fugitives are being surrounded but still PC chard wants more he's determined that all three will be caught before you go it's important to put yourself in the position of the PCs they're running in the dark they can't see where they're going the hem look the bigger picture my experience they're happy to let us sky demean and take control of the situation the officers they have just got wraps their eyes see unless you see a tree over the river [Applause] it's in a PCS nature to go piling in and Nick the person it's good to be above okay guys don't go watching me in there okay go in there without the helicopter and it's thermal imager nobody for low would know how many they were after when you see the ground troops their hands on him you can't be the feeling of getting their list a result even though you're detached you still want to go yeah got him good stuff the sky cops are based at a heliport on the edge of Epping Forest it's now 7:00 a.m. time for the night crew to call it a day London sky cops fly around the clock seven days a week it's not all about thief's catching them the helicopters must be looked after properly we watched the Judy aircraft twice a week Sunday mornings and Wednesdays today being a Thursday is because their cough was fairly busy yesterday you know the bugs we pick up when we're flying around on your windscreen just cuts down the visibility we need to see what we're doing and the camera could burn obviously needs to be kept clean so that the evidence is not spoiled London has three of these choppers each cost five million pounds and there's a long line of metropolitan police officers who want to fly in them today wanna be sky cops are facing flight tests to see if any of them are good enough to become air observers and the pressures on I am nervous very nervous but actually no flying experience whatsoever so it's going to be a new experience for me going up in the helicopter but it is exciting and it's something you don't get to do every day so I'll give it my best shot and see how I go on PC Berman is one of hundreds who apply to fill just two vacancies in this Air Support Unit the final five have been under assessment for months PC Miller is used to pressure he drives fast police cars in North London as part of a Rapid Response Team service that's quite apprehensive about wondering if I'll be able to work in in the environment of a helicopter I've never flown in a helicopter before in my life we test them on the ground as best we can we've tested habitude but there's no substitute for etiquette when the aircraft's using the the cameras using the maps and actually being in that environment Miller will have to convince sergeants Brandon and Hutchison that he's fit for purpose a video records being kept - okay if you'd like to zoom in on the top of the Gherkin that's a grass good right what if I get to do now please put the quad up screen pressing the pit button down on the left so if you look at the screen yep work exactly where we are now what directs my heading [Music] map is always north up what directional we had acquire heading south that way when dinner up direction exactly so you need to talk us as to which way we need to go we see the northerly direction to normally turn the aircraft around we're looking at spatial awareness navigation camera work their ability to listen to instructions and listen to radios and follow instruction so you add all of those sort of skills together and you come up with a series of tasks that becomes progressively more complex I did expect it to be quite intense and it definitely lived up to that okay that's this hold up okay meanwhile a second helicopter callsign India 99 is out on patrol over East London but things are quiet that's an offense down there look four o'clock that peak minecraft addresses in the front observer position is PC banning a rookie 12 months ago he was being given the once-over and the actual process of selection is extremely stressful I particularly hated it you can see the sweat beads you can see them panicking [Music] but it is worthwhile and now the sense of achievement that I've got now being part of the team up here is immense first you're gonna start your systems we talked about that is for the cards around on throughout mapping often are good back in the flight test chop pack another wannabe is facing the sergeant's PCEHR is a firearms officer more used to carrying guns than maps can direct the pilot to take just right about the junction of the m11 and the a 406 also noticed on page 102 and if you can't use an A to Z and use it quickly you're unlikely to make the grade as a sky cop a few miles away the second helicopter is a thousand feet above a stolen red Volkswagen being pursued by traffic officers the chase is fast and furious and the sky cops are needed Indian nine-nine and PC panning a less than a minute away yeah well literally 30 seconds for this mending the maps is PC Pritchard a sky cop for seven years PC bannings job is to spot the stolen car and get it on camera the driver of the VW is known to police he's got convictions for assault and burglary and is wanted for death by dangerous driving normally vehicle chases are on roads and this this car was son decided to do some cross-country on some footpaths which was a bit of a shock for the first time for me to see that the man running into the block of flats is a passenger he's managed to outsmart the cop who was after him just ran straight for this block of flats with a PC quite close behind him but managed to get into the flats and in the communal door which closed behind him the PC was stuck outside but the sky cops have not forgotten the driver of the stolen car and PC Pritchard has him in his sights but arresting the passenger won't be easy the door is locked and no one seems to have a key [Music] while the search goes on PC Behrman is starting her flight test and a first time go at using the heli tele change the camera to the spotter scope you'll see the that's it now try and keep it on the car focus it up to see if we read the registration number for her the pressures really on the flight test for men is is their first ever fly in a helicopter and that certainly adds to the pressure and adds to the nerves but what we're looking to do is see whether they can cope with that pressure stay calm and focused did find it very hard oh yeah I lost my bearings on more than one occasion I was very disappointed because I can feel that I did as well as I wanted to PC behmen believes she's flunked the test completely well and I did very well she had very high expectations of herself and when things didn't quite go to plan I think she in her own mind felt that she'd let herself down I had to go compose myself there's a little bit I'm upset I didn't go quite as well as I hoped Oh examiners are sympathetic but unmoved we've got very limited resources limited number of flying hours and a limited amount of time in which to train someone and we need to try and determine whether within that time and within that those resources this person has a realistic chance of passing the course [Music] sorry [Music] over East London pcs Prichard and banning are still after the passenger from the stolen VW officers on the ground are still locked out of the block of flats even if they get in the run away could be in any one of more than fifty flats it's not looking good further investigation hopefully get entertained but there can be a long old process once they've locked themselves away in a block of flats the only one that gets away it is upsetting and in a way but they will always come again for the police on the ground the loss of the passenger just got a whole lot worse one of their patrol cars has blown a gasket [Music] at the sky cops base the flight tests have been delayed even with three helicopters it's not always possible to kick them all in the air at the same time a job for the unit's team of nine engineers it's a very rewarding job take a lot of satisfaction in what you do you've got to be on the ball all the time you can't don't have bad days really you've got to have the integrity as well if you do make a mistake let's put your hand up straight away and say no that's not right you can't let something go you can't let them go flying something's not right for the last two wannabe sky cops the delay hasn't been long enough navigation is not PC Stanley's strong point lead Oxford business white building straight front start now concealed ooh sorry yeah okay straight ahead there's a Batman's gone all right Lewis he's struggling and the sergeant seem to know it again [Music] what I'd like you to do now please take us to do 224 of the m25 Jochen poor pc sternly is lost already [Music] now you should have the railway night there this get this done if forest occurs on our left hand side I have a few problems I mean when you're busy looking down at maps shouldn't get disorientated where you are trying to point out where you were we've just been flying over and then trying to find it again on the map quite difficult and plus at the same time sometimes the aircraft is in a quite steep banking system it seems to be going somewhere so it's been a bit there was a few problems like that but hopefully I managed to bring him back last up is PC Brandon another police fast response driver from North London Brandon can read maps okay but is facing possibly his worst nightmare earlier in the selection process he let slip that he has a fear of flying it's not my favorite activity blood flying since I was a kid but as I saw older I've become a bit more fearful of it it's a case of whether my nerves are gonna get the better of me if you look out to you to the left of the aircraft now you see a collection of one two three four four six tower blocks the name of that housing estate please the orchard is things okay [Music] don't go drinking once again the sergeants go for the jugular captain Roberts has been told to show PC Brandon just what this helicopter can do I really don't like this bit that's really go well this is rather good all the time I'm sure you did a secret I cope into well I'm turning over it's no good having a sky cop who can't take fast turns and bad weather analyzing this is a bit Philip that silikal you pensa pocket I think it's a really important fact that we do every day so you need to know for your own fine whether you can deal with this I hope you feel uncomfortable to read this yeah then seriously this is not the job for you okay I wanted Matt to see what the aircraft does I'm a real job and I wanted us to get an opportunity to see how he reacted it's been a tough flight and for PC Brandon a final one whilst he's very very comfortable and very competent in fact as a potential air observer my concerns about the the risks of him not sticking with the job main that I'm not going to invite him back for interview the sergeants have also failed PC Stanley but three have passed their flight tests pcs Miller air and to her great surprise PC Behrman a performance was nowhere near as bad as she believed it was and we've invited her back for an interview we wouldn't have done that if we didn't think she was trainable as an air observer the three pcs face two more weeks of examination and assessment but only two if any will become sky cops it's 7:00 p.m. the night shifts on and tonight there are worries about the visibility this units biggest enemy just how about 3k so we're a throw at the moment forecast cloud and rain could ground the sky cops yeah so it's visibility is coming down really that's gonna be what causes the problem later already they are needed to help with a car crash but the conditions are changing fast oh yeah and this looks a bit grip yeah we got bend down again about to life I've tried to live do we look at the instant on them on the cloud monitor it's showing that it is within limits but it's not always accurate and it really is always down for Euler it simply lifted it off the trees you could see well you couldn't see what was the problem so hoser it was a easy decision to come back it down again discretion being the better part of valor but it was worth a try at least got to see although ever was like but it is annoying it was close to limits it's looking like a miserable night we're doing much else London sky cops can lose as much as three weeks a year due to poor visibility by morning the weather is worse but the visibility is okay just if we're ready doctor today's first mission is a vital one there's violence on the streets of London riot police have been deployed to deal with what looks like a full-scale riot but this is a training exercise [Music] an unusual and important one for the first time since the suicide bomb attack on London of July the 7th 2005 London's three emergency services are practicing working together during a major incident there's a real realization that we need to practice responding to critical incidents in London where we have to speak with the ambulance service the fire service will have different priorities when we arrive at an incident such as a bomb when the 7/7 bombings took place police fire and ambulance found themselves under greater pressure because they couldn't communicate with each other properly there was more than one scene of critical incident great confusion the key major problem was communication and if you can't communicate you can't really do anything [Music] that's where London's sky cops come in for the first time Indian 99s heli telly is being used to downlink pictures of this mock attack to commanders on the ground armed with special mobile video receivers enabling senior officers to see right into the heart of the riot what was happening was as fires breaking out there's a riot going on and with our daily downlink capability we're giving them a real-time update as a useful tool the sky cops will show them things they wouldn't normally be able to see today's training exercise is also the first time a police officer has coordinated fire and ambulance as well as police he's called a silver commander my role today is based upon the information that's coming in we know weren't to achieve which is obviously a peaceful outcome and return to normality and my role is to work out how we're actually going to do that the silver Commander is being pressurized and tested to see how he copes with the various crises thrown at him [Music] control control receive an Indian on the building that's the person in distress is on the roof of the ground-floor at the rear of the premises is a fire their support unit really gives an overview of what's going on it gives you a very clear picture of who's where because information you're receiving from the officers on the scene can be a little bit too disparate and a little bit detached and you pull that together with the feeds particularly that you're getting on the commentary you're getting from the air support unit because you have a really clear picture of what's going on in real-time the man on the roof High Street still being dealt with we've still got sporadic disorder as far as we're concerned without the heli telly pictures the commanders would have no idea how much danger the man is in [Music] there is useful to show that what's going on this riot might be make-believe but so two of the streets of London it is taking place in this is a brand new purpose-built metropolitan police training complex which cost over 15 million pounds and rivals any Hollywood film set we've got two trains we've got a train we've got part of an aeroplane we've got a spot stadium loads of street scenes and buildings mocked up for various things that you see on any general area in London or parts of London on surrounds the roof there but as in every movie there's always a moment less convincing than the rest nevertheless the rescue will be taken seriously just like the real thing you need to tell about don't you that you've spotted something else so throw it into the pond Simon knows we would do really so we're still with us even if you're not on it can never feel in time because obviously there aren't real people gonna be hurt as a property gonna be damaged people aren't in real danger but when you actually start getting solid into the exercise then a degree of reality certainly creeps into it you don't take your life after dating I think we all get into our roles fairly quickly and almost switch on to autopilot and start doing it as as you would do it on the day he is after eight hours the state of Anarchy is over you learn from those those training exercises so you can do it correctly in a safe way and it comes to the real thing the man who stole the Fiat Punto and led three police forces across two counties into East London was found to be in breach of a court order and was sent to prison for five months the man in the red VW wanted for causing death by dangerous driving failed to appear in court and is still at large after recovering from the flight tests - if the three wannabe sky cops were offered jobs on the unit pcs miller.time Hawk and Behrman I'm counting down the days not many shifts left I am very excited to be coming up there [Music] [Music]