No ambulance officer was available in the mid-west to respond to a major incident at Shannon Airport last week so one had to be sent 125km from Kerry.
The National Ambulance Service (NAS) was unable to find an officer to attend the aircraft emergency which initially involved 23 potential casualties.
Last Wednesday, United Airlines flight UA-880 diverted to Shannon after it encountered “severe and unexpected turbulence” over the Atlantic. There were 207 passengers on board the flight as well as a cockpit crew of 3 and 10 flight attendants.
After landing safely in the early hours of the morning, a total of 23 passengers and crew were assessed and triaged at the airport. Twelve patients were later transported to hospital in the end while paramedics treated a further 11 passengers at the airport and established they didn’t require hospitalisation.
Seven ambulances from Ennis and Limerick were sent to the airport ahead of the aircraft’s arrival.
The National Ambulance Service confirmed that the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) allocated seven resources were deployed along with an ambulance officer.
The embattled service has refused to answer any other questions in relation to the matter including how many officers are based in the mid-west or whether there was an officer rostered to be on-call on the night.
According to paramedics however, no ambulance officer could be contacted and one was eventually asked to respond from Tralee.
One paramedic said: “This was a major incident and probably the biggest response by the ambulance service to an incident at the airport in several years. On our way to the airport we knew we could have as many as 23 casualties but we had no idea how seriously injured they were. Until all patients were assessed, no one knew how serious an incident it was.”
“Incidents involving turbulence on aircraft can be very serious but fortunately in this case, all the injuries were minor and only some of those hurt had to be transported.
No matter how serious or minor the incident turned out to be, an ambulance officer from the mid west should have been there coordinating matters,” he said.
Paramedics have also said that ambulance officers are paramedics and have fully equipped rapid response cars at their disposal.
“One if not more of them should have been at Shannon Airport coordinating the ambulance service operation. That’s their job,” he said.
The incident jet was grounded and sent to a hangar to be inspected to ensure no damage had occurred during the incident.