On 11 May 1999, during an operation in the Clare and Galway region, the Garda air support unit – GASU – helicopter which is piloted by Air Corps personnel inadvertently entered cloud. Contact was lost with the ground target, the mission was aborted and the helicopter proceeded to Shannon Airport. The incident was the subject of an investigation carried out by the air accident investigation unit of the Department of Public Enterprise. A report was subsequently published and this included a number of recommendations, one of which was that the Air Corps should suspend GASU night operations in rural areas with immediate effect until an effective programme of extra night flying is completed by Air Corps GASU pilots. This recommendation was implemented.