Galway kept the Irish Air Corps busy this year as the county with the second highest number of Air Ambulance flights.
The Air Ambulance was called out to Galway 36 times in 2018, second only to Mayo which saw the Air Corps conduct 49 operations.
Figures released by the Department of Defence show that of the the 310 Air Ambulance missions flown in 2018, 58% were call outs to medical emergencies in the west.
Most of those missions required further support from Galway as 41% of all flights came to University Hospital Galway.
The Air Ambulance is an essential service for reaching people having a medical emergency in isolated rural communities that could be difficult to reach by ambulance.
It is also called for people who are out hiking in the hills or otherwise away from civilisation when they have a medical crisis.
The Emergency Aeromedical support service of the Air Corps was established in 2012, and the unit serving Galway is based out of Custume Barracks in Athlone.
Photo: Irish Air Corps/Facebook
