Vol. 530 No. 2
20 Mr. Finucane asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the reason the Alouette helicopter based at Waterford Airport was not called to the rescue of a man who fell overboard from the ferry, the Koningen Beatrix; and if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the helicopter which left Dublin Airport took 69 minutes to reach the scene of the accident. [28746/00]
I am aware of the details of the incident referred to by the Deputy.
The Sikorksy S6IM helicopter, which was tasked at 11.55, was airborne from Dublin Airport at 12.06 on 29 October 2000 and arrived on scene at 12.50. The flight time was 44 minutes and the time from tasking was 55 minutes. This response time is well within accepted international norms for response to marine emergency incidents.
The Alouette 111 single engined helicopter based at Waterford was not tasked because the incident location, 17 nautical miles from Rosslare, was well outside the Air Corps declared operational capability of the aircraft, that is, it was more than three nautical miles offshore and top cover was not available. This aircraft, due to its visual contact flight conditions, daylight only restricted range, is not particularly suited for offshore marine emergency helicopter cover. It is, however, well suited for mountain, cliff and close in marine search and rescue operations conducted by daylight in visual contact flight conditions.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Alouette is in replacement on a temporary basis of the Dauphin which crashed on Tramore beach on 2 July 1999 with the tragic loss of four crewmen. My Department is working closely with the Department of Defence to urgently replace the Alouette with an all weather night flying capacity at Waterford.
