Increase in aircraft diversion incidents

FOLLOWING a massive drop in medical emergencies at Shannon Airport in 2009, there was a considerable jump last year in the number of incidents where aircraft diverted to the mid west airport with ill passengers.

Shannon Airport is a designated emergency landing site for aircraft travelling on the north Atlantic route because of its strategic location on the edge of Europe — and because it also has the longest runway in Ireland at 3,200m (3.2km).

The latest information from the Shannon Airport Authority show emergency services dealt with 24 incidents in 2010 where aircraft diverted to or made landings at Shannon having declared medical emergencies. This followed a drop in the previous year as the downturn in the aviation industry began to take hold.

In 2009, there were 31 aircraft emergencies and alerts of which just seven were medical-related.

Last year, however, while the number of incidents increased to 37, the number of medical emergencies soared from seven to 24.

In the most serious incident of 2010, a 61-year-old Continental Airlines fight attendant died in hospital in Limerick after suffering a heart attack on board a flight from Europe to the US on New Year’s Eve.

In 2010 in total, emergency crews at Shannon dealt with 24 medical emergencies, five aircraft emergencies, three aircraft alerts and five local standbys.

So far this year, two people have been hospitalised after falling ill on flights while one other was treated for a head injury sustained during his journey.