The Irish Community Air Ambulance has taken delivery of a Leonardo 109S helicopter.

It is the fastest civilian helicopter in the world and is ideally suited to the provision of a rural Helicopter Emergency Medical Service.

The charity heli-med service has responded to almost 1,000 incidents from its base in Rathcoole, County Cork since it was established in July 2019. Cardiac arrests account for the most incidents so far this year, followed by road traffic collisions and farming accidents.

Kerry is one of the counties that relies most on the voluntary service with 29 call outs in the region in the first three months of this year alone.

The new aircraft, which will go into full service on Thursday, offers more speed, greater patient comfort and it has the capacity to take on more fuel increasing endurance and range.

The helicopter can travel up to 300 kilometres per hour. It is capable of flying the length of the country from Mizen to Malin Head in a little over 90 minutes. The same journey would take 8 hours by road.

“We are often called to the most serious of incidents, in these situations where you’re dealing with a critical patient, the small gains can have the greatest benefit to the patient’s comfort and outcomes. This new helicopter offers more speed but it also has additional room at the rear. That means that we can transport adult patients more comfortably and we also have space for an additional medic on board, if necessary,” said Irish Community Air Ambulance Chief Executive Mícheál Sheridan.