An Cosantóir

25 SEARCH AND RESCUE went tearing off all over the place; just wild!' One of his more surreal memories is of a medical evacuation from a Norwegian cruise liner off Lough Swilly. A crew member had appendicitis and required an airlift to hospital. As the helicopter performed its 'let down' to approach the ship, he could see there were actually three cruise ships anchored. Night had fallen, the weather was poor, but he could see inside the glass doors of one of the dining rooms on board the ship they were heading for. He saw several guests in dinner jackets enjoying their cigars as they strolled out on deck to watch – almost as if it were part of the night-time entertainment. Clancy and Air Corps search and rescue colleagues had trained on the Sikorsky S-61 for the Irish Coast Guard's north-west base, relocated to Sligo airport, when a government decision pulled the military out of the service in 2004, despite the fact that then Irish Coast Guard director Captain Liam Kirwan had favoured a mix of both state and private operations to prevent a monopoly. Clancy agreed with that approach at the time. 'I often miss the simplicity of it,' Clancy said, recalling how the Dauphin helicopter would be guided into Finner through a gap in the nearby beach by radar, until sight of a strobe light system directed the pilot home to the helipad. He continued: Flying the Dauphin at night, you were always on the edge. While winching, if something were to happen to one engine, you knew you were ditching the aircraft if anything went wrong. However, engine failure was a very low risk. Once you were in the pilot's seat, this was your complete focus, and you had to be on the top of your game. Out and up at 300 feet from Finner, and you were off, and you will not see a more beautiful landscape in the world than the Sligo and Donegal coastline. It is only when you step away from it that you begin to reflect on how beautiful it is, and how lucky you were. That is what you would miss. He went on to point out: Almost ten years later, the Air Corps EAS has responded to over 5,000 tasks and been involved in 3,400 as of November 2021 and counting. We know that thousands of lives have had significantly improved outcomes. There hasn't been a community in the state which hasn't been touched by the EAS, and we are very proud of what it has achieved. It has grown way beyond what was anticipated; it is a primary output of our helicopter fleet, and there is now a review of the service as part of the government's White Paper on Defence which is due to report at the end of 2021. The Air Corps started the state's air ambulance service in the 1960s; we responded in 1963 to search and rescue; we were the first to bring night-time rescue to a dedicated search and rescue service as a consequence of the campaign run by Joan McGinley [O'Doherty] in Donegal. So we have a record in pioneering these services. Sometimes the Air Corps can be taken for granted. However, I would never question its enthusiasm, competence and expertise. Air Corps 112 Helicopter departing from Wexford Racecourse with a patient on board. - Courtesy of National Ambulance Service Paramedic.

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