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On 26th September, a caller to Joe Duffy’s Liveline programme on RTE radio phoned in to complain about the presence of the Air Corps, Learjet 45 in Malta. The aircraft was attending this year's Malta International Airshow, which took place on September 24th and 25th. This is only the second time in the 19 year history of the show that Air Corps participated with the aircraft taking part in the static display. It was in Malta from the 24th-26th. The caller, identified only as ‘John’ was attending a wedding in Malta and was according to RTE “appalled” when he discovered that the aircraft was taking part in the air show in Malta. He wanted to know who was paying for this trip and expressed the view that the Lear jet can be put to better use “parked in Baldonnel awaiting Government business”. Joe of course added to the controversy by selectively reading from an Air Corps statement showing that the cost for the participation of the aircraft in Malta was €13,095, based on 6.7 hours return flying at an average hourly direct cost of €1,940. This allowed John to talk about ‘jollies’, meals and accommodation before dismissing the whole thing by saying that “if the Irish Learjet was part of it” it showed how good it was “pretty poor” he added. He added that the Air Corps were “doing entertainment all over Europe with their helicopters”. Perhaps John would have been more entertained if he had been in Malta in February, when no less than three Air Corps aircraft, both Government jets and the CASA CN235, to evacuate Irish citizens from Libya and position the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Emergency Assistance Team to the region. He would have been horrified to learn that they were there for almost six days.

Fortunately, The Taoiseach Enda Kenny was better informed and was able to tell Gerry Adams TD in the Dáil on 27th September that reason for the participation in the show was because the Maltese authorities supported us in transporting Irish citizens out of Libya to Valletta. This support proved invaluable to the success of the evacuation mission, the first such even undertaken by the Air Corps. Maltese Cadets are also trained in the Curragh.

John might have been interested in who was paying for the search for the 10m (33ft) yacht, the Golden Eagle, crewed by a 70-year-old Norwegian Arvid Moe and a 62-year-old New Zealander  Francis Cooper, which left St George in Bermuda on 21st August and was due in Crookhaven, west Cork on 15th September. The vessel made no contact from the time it left due probably to fact that the only communication equipment was “a little handheld VHF radio” but the crew “were sparing the batteries” and “hadn’t got it on at all until they were coming in”. Fortunately it equipped with a 406MHz EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon), which is activated as soon as it comes in contact with water and sends a signal via satellite to the nearest coast guard services. This reckless action sparked a major search operation over the weekend of 17th-18th September, involving the Bermuda authorities, the Irish Coast Guard, the UK Coast Guard and the Portuguese Coast Guard in the Azores. On 20th September, an initial search was carried out off the Cork coast the previous day by the Waterford and Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard Sikorsky S- 61Ns, while the following day an Irish Air Corps CASA CN235 commenced an extensive search off the west coast. The Portuguese air force also assisted in searching around the mid-Atlantic and Azores Islands. Further search missions were undertaken by the Air Corps and in total 26.55 hours were in four missions. The yacht finally sailed into Portmagee in south Kerry on 25th September at just after 15:00 oblivious to the massive sea and air search that had taken place for it over the previous week. The reality is that the Air Corps is like an insurance policy, you pay for it whether you need it or not and in that payment is the full package, training, hoax calls, dubious searches and yes flying the flag abroad which provides valuable training and experience and as in the case of Malta says thank you to another service who helped us out. Since the present Government took office (9th March) the Learjet has flown 41 hours on air ambulance missions and 33 hours 50 minutes on VIP flights.