WITH DUBLIN AIRPORT closed for the morning and struggling to clear the passenger backlog for the afternoon, it was left to the Irish Air Corps to fly two urgently sick children to London today – with one flight the government jet.

IAC Learjet 45, flying under the callsign ‘Irish 258′, was given priority departure clearance from Dublin Airport shortly after noon and flew to Heathrow Airport carrying a two-year-old child requiring a transplant.

The child was brought from Heathrow to Kings College Hospital in London upon its arrival.

The Learjet is one of the government’s two jets; the larger Gulfstream jet is to be taken out of commission in the near future under the terms of the Budget.

Less than half an hour earlier, a Defence Forces AW139 helicopter (below), with the callsign ‘Irish 274′, flew from Baldonnell Airport to Crumlin Children’s Hospital, and from there onto the RAF base at Northolt in west London.

It was carrying a one-month-old child as well as a team of medical staff from the HSE.

The two air ambulance flights brought the number of air ambulance flights run by the Air Corps in this year to 65.