Rescue Services
(asked on 4th June 2014) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions a foreign-requested aircraft has provided search and rescue assistance over UK territorial waters in each of the last three years; what role each such aircraft played; what the location of each incident was; and whether each occurrence was in response to obligations under Annex 12 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
I refer the hon. Member to the answers previously given to him on 22 November 2013 (Official Report, column 1046W) and 27 March 2012 (Official Report, column 1054W).
Between 4 November 2013 and 5 June 2014 there have been five occasions where an Irish helicopter was requested by the Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre to provide search and rescue assistance over UK territorial waters. Four of these were in Northern Ireland. These were in response to obligations under Annex 12 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
Details of the five incidents are shown below:
| Date | Aircraft | Aircraft Role | Location |
| 15 November 2013 | Irish Coastguard Helicopter | Ditched Aircraft | Enniskillen, Northern Ireland |
| 12 February 2014 | Irish Coastguard Helicopter | Topcover for lifeboat | Mull of Kintyre, Scotland |
| 16 February 2014 | Irish Coastguard Helicopter | Individual with knee injury | Binnian, Northern Ireland |
| 21 March 2014 | Irish Coastguard Helicopter | Individual with hip injury | Rathlin island, Northern Ireland |
| 16 May 2014 | Irish Coastguard Helicopter | Capsized individual | Enniskillin, Northern Ireland |
Detailed statistics on UK military SAR activity can be found on the Government website at the following link:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/release-calendar/index.html?newquery=*&uday=0&umonth=0&uyear=0&title=Military+Search+and+Rescue+Monthly+Statistic&pagetype=calendar-entry&lday=&lmonth=&lyear=