- Garda Air Support Unit
The Garda Air Support Unit (GASU) is a unit of an
Garda Síochána , the police force of theRepublic of Ireland which was formed in 1997. The GASU's aircraft are maintained and flown by theIrish Air Corps , and based atCasement Aerodrome near Dublin. The unit operates a Britten-Norman BN 2T-4S Defender 4000 aircraft, (since 2001) an EC 135 T1. The Eurocopter AS355N Squirrel Helicopter, which was in use by the force up until January 2008 has been replaced by a second EC 135 T1. [cite web | title=Ireland.com| url=http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0115/breaking41.htm| accessmonthday=January 18| accessyear=2008]The Garda Air Support Unit contributed directly to 1,300 arrests within the last three years, and located 14 people during search and rescure operations. [cite web | title=Eircom.net| url=http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/11968459?view=Eircomnet| accessmonthday=January 17 | accessyear=2008] Their responsibilities include providing an active support role for the
Garda Síochána , Garda Aircraft may be deployed to incidents in the following circumstances,*An Immediate threat to life.
*Incidents of crime, terrorism or of national importance.
*Immediate threat of serious public disorder.
*A task, which will lead to the immediate prevention or detection of crime.
*To gather evidence and to prevent or detect crime or to avert a serious public disorder.
*To gather information on and deal with incidents relating to Crime, Public disorder and traffic related matters. [ cite web | title=Garda Síochána | url=http://www.garda.ie/airsupportunit.html| accessmonthday=January 17 | accessyear=2008]References
External links
* [http://www.garda.ie/angarda/sdu.html Official site]
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