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THE NEW S92 search & rescue helicopter for the Dublin region was officially launched at Weston Aerodrome today, completing the overhaul of the Irish Coast Guard’s chopper fleet with state-of-the-art new craft.
Built to specifications set out by the rescue service, the Sikorsky helicopters are designed to provide crews with faster on-scene times, faster patient recovery times and greater year-round capacity.
All four Coast Guard aircraft bases now have upgraded choppers. The new S92s replace the old Sikorsky S61s, which were in use until recently at the bases in Dublin, Shannon, Sligo and Waterford.
The new craft can travel at up to 275 km/h, carry up to 22 casualties and will have a range of 270 miles. In adverse weather conditions, where there’s a risk of rotor icing, the choppers can fly at a height of 10ft in temperatures as low as minus 40.
Promotional video for the Sikorsky S92 (Youtube: gucio7832)
Today’s launch follows one of the busiest years on record for the Irish Coast Guard, with 33 per cent more call-0uts than 2012 — partly as a result of the July heatwave. The helicopter crews, along with the service’s volunteer members, responded to a total of 2,627 incidents.
There were 808 helicopter missions overall, while the two west coast bases at Sligo and Shannon experiencing their busiest years on record; Shannon was particularly busy, with 290 missions flown out of the base between January last and December.
There was a 70 per cent increase in call-outs to incidents on inland waterways, with the good weather contributing to rise in emergencies involving power and sail craft (up by one-fifth).
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar with coast guard crew and senior staff at the launch of the Dublin region S92 today [Image: Irish Coast Guard/Facebook]
Speaking at the launch today in Weston, Transport Minister Leo Varadkar said the new addition meant meant the service now had one of “the most modern and effective helicopter fleets in the world”.
“This is a good occasion to pay tribute to the dedicated helicopter crews who work tirelessly to rescue lives all year round, and also the hundreds of volunteers on Coast Guard and RNLI vessels, mountain and cave rescue teams.
“It wouldn’t be possible to provide the same level of emergency response without these volunteers.”
The coast guard has also launched a competition to name all of the new helicopters, to be run in conjunction with local radio stations in counties where the craft are based.
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Unbeknownst? Time for these companies to be hammered for such “errors”.
@Ed: That’s usually the case in leaks. The company often gets alerted by people who suffered from the leak a year or so after the fact.
BTW this site is a handy way to search the lists of publicly known leaks: https://haveibeenpwned.com/
@John Murphy: my iPhone told me I was owned when I tried to log into a website the other day and suggested I change the password there. A government website as well but not in Ireland.
“700,000 documents dating from 2014 to 2017 were stored in the folder, including some passports, drivers’ licenses and compliance-related forms”
So nothing is private any more, all our private information is now floating around cyber space freely available to criminals.
Will anybody be held to account?? will customers be compensated?? Joke of a country, can do nothing right. Those responsible should be face criminal charges.
@SteveBuzzard: what’s the “country” got to do with a private company. They should have deleted most of this info though, according to GDPR rules.
@Eugene Norman: Not true. GDPR does not put any time scale on how long companies have to hold data. The Data Protection Act requires them to delete it 7 years after the end of the relationship with the individual so actually very little of it should have been deleted
I thought they are supposed to delete verification documents after a certain period… Not keep them.
Prosecutions? I imagine not of course.
@Franky Jefferson: yeah, all customer data can only be stored for a maximum of 6 months.
@Peter Cavey: Incorrect. GDPR does not put a time frame how long companies can hold you’re data. The Data Protection Act requires companies to delete data after 7 years
@Peter Cavey: Incorrect. Best not comment without correct facts
@M. Murphy: People do be getting very heated about GDPR.
Was it leaky Leo
@Marty Lawless: who?? Oh.. you mean Leako Varadkar
The statement that there is no evidence that the data was accessed rings false when you consider it was an external, independent company that found the data publicly accessible. Unless the server itself was publicly available on the cloud, a serious data security error in of itself, the data had to be accessed for it to have become publicly available.
“700,000 documents dating from 2014 to 2017 were stored in the folder, including some passports, drivers’ licenses and compliance-related forms”
So nothing is private any more, all our private information is now floating around cyber space freely available to criminals.
Will anybody be held to account?? will customers be compensated?? Joke of a country, can do nothing right. Those responsible should face criminal charges.
@SteveBuzzard: Oh FFS don’t be so dramatic. Yes they will be held accountable. The company will be investigated and sanctioned by the Central Bank and the Data Protection Commissioner. As for compensation unless there is evidence that anyone has suffered a loss or damage as a result of the leak then no they will not be compensated as there is no loss or damage to be compensated for
The more info one has to provide the greater the leak! Convoluted EU nonsensical process management at its finest.
Did you purposely forget to mention the Irish times to plug our own.
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