High hopes for idle choppers

Writing in Initiative’s Insight bi-weekly update, Simon Hughes asked that with helicopter ownership in Ireland more than tripling since 2000 and the economic downturn forcing people to rethink flying costs, are we going to see hundreds of helicopters lying idle? Hughes said the choppers could make money if they were deployed for advertising.
An article in this week’s Woman’s Way points to how helicopters are being put to good use as part of Ireland’s first flying doctor service. The All Ireland Air Ambulance service plans to have three choppers servicing the country from Kerry, Enniskillen, Waterford and Belfast.
Research from Germany, where a network of air ambulances was launched 20 years ago to serve the whole nation, shows that an average response time to the scene of an incident was just ten minutes.
Intensive care stays in hospital were shortened by up to seven days and deaths during transport to hospital are significantly down. Wound infections and head mortality have been reduced by nine and 15 per cent respectively.