Local air ambulance in dramatic drugs swoop

The Athlone-based emergency air ambulance was taken out of service last week to assist in the dramatic interception of 2.2 tonnes of cocaine off the Cork coast.

The ambulance was "stripped of all its medical equipment, fitted with guns and sent to Cork” and was used to lower elite Army Ranger Winger personnel onto the ship in order to secure the cargo and vessel.

It meant large parts of the Midlands were left with no service for patients experiencing acute medical emergencies.

The redeployment of the air ambulance helicopter from its base in Custume Barracks has been heavily criticised and has once again highlighted the recruitment and retention crisis and the under-resourcing of the Defence Forces.

Kildare TD and former Defence Forces officer, Deputy Cathal Berry, confirmed to the Westmeath Independent that the Athlone-based air ambulance had to be “recalled” and pressed into service on the joint mission in Cork because it was the “only one” of six similar helicopters in the State to be fully serviced.

“To expect one helicopter to do two jobs, one medical and one defence, in two different provinces, at the same time, is an accident waiting to happen,” he said, adding that the “knock on implications” for patients experiencing a medical emergency in the Midlands “have yet to be fully assessed.”

The air ambulance helicopter is an Augusta Westland (AW) 139, of which there are six in the State, but a crisis in the recruitment of maintenance technicians in the Defence Forces meant that five of the six helicopters were “on the ground awaiting servicing” and the only one available was the AW139 air ambulance helicopter in Athlone, according to Deputy Berry.

He said the air ambulance had to be “stripped of all its medical equipment, fitted with guns and sent to Cork”

He described this as “completely unacceptable.”

He also questioned how acute medical emergencies across the Midlands and mid-West region were dealt with during the period the air ambulance service was out of action.

“We still don’t know the answer to that question,” he said. “It’s a highly unusual way to do business and highlights once again the lack of resourcing of the Defence Forces.”Also highly critical of the redeployment of the air ambulance to Cork last week was Athlone-based Brig Gen (Retd) of the Defence Forces Ger Aherne who said “political, journalistic and citizen Ireland don’t care about the Defence Forces.”

“It is a shocking state of affairs that the only helicopter available in the State last week was the air ambulance in Athlone because the maintenance technicians in Baldonnel are operating at one-third of the their strength, but nobody cares,” he said.

Mr Aherne said he has been highlighting the under-resourcing of the Defence Forces “for over 10 years” and this is “just another example” of the risks that Defence Forces personnel are being asked to take on a daily basis. He claimed that the Army Ranger Wing personnel who boarded the container ship in Cork last week were asked to take “double the risk” due to the absence of a second helicopter to provide cover for the risky operation.

He suggested that people “should go on the streets” to highlight the acute under-resourcing of the Defence Forces, and said he has already taken this course of action as one of the leaders of the ‘Respect and Loyalty’ campaign to raise awareness about the crisis in the Defence Forces. The Air Corps and the Defence Forces both declined to comment.