The boxy black helicopters have become a familiar sight to some B.C. residents.
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On a recent morning, Carol Lott was feeding her donkeys when she heard a familiar whomp-whomp-whomp in the distance. She waved as a dark helicopter cruised into view, then made a small loop around her Surrey farm before moving east along the Canada-U.S. border.
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“I love that they fly over, because I love helicopters,” she said. “When it flew over the first time, I thought, ‘Oh my God, it actually is that huge.’”
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After living near the border for 11 years, where she once encountered a border jumper near her sheep pasture, Lott said she feels the helicopters are a good investment. But questions about the program’s value, and its future, continue to dog the Canadian government and the RCMP as the contract to charter the three Black Hawks is set to expire on May 31.
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The RCMP has renewed the contract for the helicopters about five times since the program began in January 2025, according to federal documents tabled in Parliament. The RCMP said the total cost for the three helicopters from January 2025 to the end of March 2026 was $39.9 million — $3.4 million of which was spent on fuel.
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Postmedia asked the RCMP for specific data on the helicopter that is often used on B.C. patrols — a Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk with the tail registration C-FHKS. Aviation records show the helicopter was built in 1985 and used by the U.S. Army before it was purchased and imported by a Canadian company in 2023 under a special exemption. It was contracted to the RCMP by Helicopter Transport Services Inc. in January 2025. Since June of last year, it has been flying mostly in Western Canada.
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The RCMP was unable to provide information on any specific B.C. investigations involving the Black Hawk , but provided national data showing that since the program began, the three helicopters have completed 857 patrols and reported 144 “flight sightings,” including suspicious activity, border crossing trails and smuggling.
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Across the country, the helicopters responded to 24 calls for assistance from groundcrews and inserted police or equipment into an area that would otherwise be hard to reach, said a RCMP statement. There were also 53 events at the border where RCMP ground teams reported Black Hawk involvement, leading to a total of 70 arrests.
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To find out more about the helicopters’ activity in B.C., Postmedia conducted its own analysis of publicly-available flight data on the tracking website ADS-B Exchange, which showed the Black Hawk with the tail registration C-FHKS made 123 flights in the province between June 2025 and April 2026, compared to 53 flights in Alberta. Many of the flights took place in the Lower Mainland during the day over Delta, Surrey, Langley and Abbotsford, but there were also flights to Prince George and Kelowna. On Friday, the helicopter was in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
