At a ceremony held at the base of the Innsbruck Police Air Support Unit on May 5, Austria’s Minister of the Interior Günther Platter officially handed over the keys to three EC135s to the unit’s pilots. The fourth EC135 was delivered on May 9 to ensure that all four helicopters were available prior to the UEFA European Football Championship, held in Austria and Switzerland from June 7 to 29. The helicopters’ mission is to provide optimized protection during this major sporting event. The contract signed by the Minister of the Interior on September 26, 2007, calls for eight EC135 P2i helicopters to be delivered. The aircraft will be certified for Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight, and it will be equipped with a rappel-dropping system and a cockpit adapted for flights with night vision goggles. The contract also includes a ten-year Parts by the Hour (PBH) service agreement. The four remaining EC135s – two to be delivered in March 2009 and the remaining two in May 2009 – will be equipped with a Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera and a searchlight.