Industrial training opportunities at East Mississippi Community College are flying high with the addition of a BK-117 training helicopter donated to EMCC by American Eurocopter, LLC. The helicopter was furnished to the college for the purposes of both enhancing EMCC student’s skills in modern globally competitive manufacturing and for training of prospective employees of American Eurocopter.

According to Stan Rice, Director, Workforce Services at EMCC, in meetings with American Eurocopter officials, Rice “suggested that it would help EMCC’s capability to provide the training if the college had a helicopter to train with”. American Eurocopter responded by saying that they had an aircraft stored at their Texas facility that they could provide. It is a very unique aircraft since it is the one that was used in the filming of the 1996 movie, “Mission Impossible.”

It will be used to provide specific training for avionics and wire and cable classes as well as for sheet metal and riveting training that the college will provide for American Eurocopter. “There are still some technicalities to work out, but we hope to get training started by the end of the summer,” said Mike McCullough, EMCC Industrial Maintenance Technology Instructor.

“This training is part of an on-going effort on the part of EMCC to meet the training needs of American Eurocopter and other business and industry located in our region providing the skills to compete in today’s global economy,” said Dr. Raj Shaunak, Vice President for Workforce Services. “We are very grateful to Mr. Marc Paganini American Eurocopter CEO who helped make this possible,” he added.