New air ambulance"too noisy" for Athlone

The emergency air ambulance service, which had been based at Custume Barracks in Athlone, resumed service yesterday (Tuesday), but will now be based at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnell, just outside Dublin. The service began operating from Athlone on June 1 on a 12-month pilot basis but after a forced landing was made just a couple of weeks after the service began the helicopter was damaged and was out of action since. On June 19 the EC-135 helicopter made a forced landing near Borrisoleigh in Tipperary. The two crew and a HSE paramedic were uninjured during the emergency landing, which was made when the air ambulance was en route to assist a patient in Templemore. Now the Department of Defence has said that the service is expected to resume this week, but due to the fact that a larger helicopter is being used until the investigation involving the original helicopter is complete the service will be run from Baldonnell. A Department of Defence spokeswoman said it will be the same service and the helicopter can cover the same area as the one that was based in Athlone but because a larger helicopter will now be used it wouldn't be feasible to run the service in Athlone because the noise levels will be too high for a small, built-up area. The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) is carrying out an investigation into the crash landing and it is expected it could take up to six months to complete. AAIU inspector Tom Moloney told the Westmeath Independent recently: "The timing depends on the number of other incidents we are dealing with, and we have been quite busy of late. But I'd hope we would be closing out this investigation before the end of the year."