Athlone-based air ambulance service returns

The emergency air ambulance service has been called into action on one occasion since it resumed operating from its base in Custume Barracks, Athlone, last Friday. The service was launched on June 4 last, but had to be temporarily suspended on June 19 after its helicopter sustained damage when forced to make a crash landing in Tipperary. The air ambulance had been en route to a patient in Templemore but it crash landed following a collision with power lines near Borrisoleigh. The three crew members on board escaped without injury. A replacement air ambulance began operating out of Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, Dublin, earlier this month, before the service resumed operating from Athlone on Friday last, July 20. In a statement issued to the Westmeath Independent yesterday (Tuesday), a spokesperson for the Department of Defence said the helicopter damaged in the Tipperary incident was currently unfit for use. "The Air Corps resumed Emergency Aeromedical Support (EAS) service operations out of Custume Barracks, Athlone on Friday last using an AW 139 helicopter," said Cliona O'Sullivan of the Department's press and information office. "The aircraft that was involved in the heavy landing incident that occurred in County Tipperary last month was an EC 135 helicopter and it remains out of service." Ms O'Sullivan added that, in the days since the service returned to Athlone, there had been "one call-out following a request for aeromedical assistance received from the HSE's National Aeromedical Co-ordination Centre." At the launch of the emergency air ambulance service in May, Health Minister Dr James Reilly said it would focus in particular on the west of the country, where hospital journey times tend to be longer. It is being operated, initially, on a one-year trial basis. "The long-term plan would be to extend the service, but obviously that's predicated on what we learn from this 'pilot' (project)," said the Minister.