Coast Guard operational area covers mountains, lakes, rivers, caves and 450,000km sq of sea
Irish Coast Guard staff members Ivan Longmore and Kevin Whitney in the organisation's Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw was requesting immediate helicopter assistance following a road crash near Kells, Co Meath. The situation was urgent as a patient, then still trapped in a vehicle, needed to get to hospital in the critical “life or death” period following a serious crash.
Leaving Cert student who died after being crushed by car in Wexford had been preparing vehicle for schoolDeportation orders rise sharply to more than 1,000 in past six months Martin Whyte of the Irish Coast Guard. Unlike their counterparts in many countries, the Irish Coast Guard is not part of the Defence Forces. Its primary responsibilities are search and rescue, promoting a safe marine environment and monitoring pollution at sea. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Ivan Longmore, divisional controller with the Irish Coast Guard, says the number of callouts rises in good weather and on bank holiday weekends, when people flock to hills and coasts. So far this year, the coast guard helicopters have been called out 469 times, 275 of them since May. He says the service was called to 2,815 incidents last year and saved 671 lives. It has saved some 336 lives to date this year, some 200 of these since May.
Kevin Whitney, head of operations at the Irish Coast Guard, says the service will later this year take delivery of a new fixed-wing aircraft, allowing the coast guard to provide its own top cover. Under a 10-year contract awarded to Bristow Ireland Limited, the coast guard will have 24/7 access to two King Air fixed-wing aircraft, to be based at Shannon Airport. There will also be a fleet of six search and rescue configured AW189 helicopters located at the existing bases in Dublin, Shannon, Sligo and Waterford.
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