MORE than a million pounds was spent flying the police helicopter on fruitless missions in the last year.

Figures show that the town's police spend £1.5m a year keeping the chopper in the sky.

But out of 280 missions in the town, only 62 flights resulted in people being rescued and arrests being made.

The police helicopter is always manned by three crew - the pilot, a paramedic and a police observer.

The police force spent an average £5,357 per each trip into the skies.

That cost is made up of the crew's wages, fuel, maintenance and ground staff.

The Air Support Unit is called in for a variety of police and ambulance tasks including searches for missing persons and suspects.

Between April 1, 2007, and March 1, 2008, the helicopter flew for 135 hours.

More than 77 hours of flying time was during daylight hours and almost 56 hours at night.

Of the 280 call outs last year, six resulted in injured people being carried in the aircraft.

Fifty trips ended up with suspects being arrested or providing intelligence that led to later arrests. Four missing people were tracked down using the chopper and two vehicles were recovered.

Overall the helicopter searched 2,179 square kilometres and recovered £45,015 worth of property.

Air Support Unit Executive Officer Graham Saunders said that the expense was justified.

"It would cost a lot more to do the same tasks without the helicopter," he said.

"When is comes to searching open areas or urban areas, the helicopter is the most effective way. It means ground police can be better used. If you tried to search the same areas from the ground it would take a lot more time and people.

"With us in the air we can release the guys on the ground to their day-to-day duties or they can help by searching areas we can't see into, like buildings.

"The helicopter is particularly good for open isolated areas and the Swindon area also covers Wroughton, Highworth and other nearby towns.

"There are some tasks the helicopter isn't much use for.

"We wouldn't search for a 5ft 10ins shoplifter in the town centre, because everyone looks like that from the air.

"We only go on tasks we believe to be viable. The ground crews will call us for assistance and then we will make a decision on whether it is viable."

Mr Saunders, who works as police staff overseeing the helicopter unit, explained that the aircraft, maintenance and pilots are all hired from a leasing company, for the annual £1.5m cost.

By leasing the helicopter, from a firm called Police Aviation Services, if the chopper is grounded a replacement would be provided within hours.

"Some forces own their own aircraft, but they could be grounded for months if they don't have funds for repairs," he said.