The Victorian police commissioner who used one of the force’s helicopters to fly nearly 600km from Melbourne to Tasmania to attend a conference has apologised for his “mistake”.

The chief commissioner, Mike Bush, used Victoria police’s “secondary” helicopter to cross the Bass Strait and attend a meeting with his counterparts in Hobart – where a mechanical issue caused it to be grounded on Monday night.

It returned to Melbourne at about 4.30pm on Tuesday, and police say its absence from Victoria had no impact on community safety.

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In a statement acknowledging his first mistake since becoming commissioner in June, Bush said more effort should have been made to find a commercial flight – which usually takes an hour. He said the use of the helicopter didn’t

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