New Garda aircraft comes off runway at Baldonnel in ‘minor’ incident

Incident happened in poor weather while aircraft was conducting training exercises at Casement Aerodrome in west Dublin The newly acquired Garda surveillance aircraft came off the runway while landing in poor weather on Thursday.The Canadian-made De Havilland Twin Otter entered service last year after the previous aircraft reached the end of its service life.The incident occurred while it was conducting training exercises from its base at Casement Aerodrome, the headquarters of the Irish Air Corps in Baldonnel, west Dublin. Open-source flight data shows the aircraft taking off from Shannon at 2.07pm and travelling across the country and landing a short time later in Casement.READ MOREStalker who ‘followed’ influencer from street to hotel room spared jailIn Burke country: ‘Many people have a lot of time for the family but want to keep their heads down’Conor Murray: Expectations of Welsh success have nosedivedTrump must ‘be involved’ in choosing next leader of Iran; attacks ‘have no mandate from the UN’, says McEnteePart of the aircraft’s landing gear left the runway as it was landing and travelled along the grass. The incident was described as “relatively minor” by a source. The aircraft suffered no obvious damage but a full assessment will have to take place before it can be cleared to fly again, sources said.The Garda has been contacted for comment.The new aircraft was acquired last year at a cost of about €7 million, a price which included sophisticated surveillance equipment.The aircraft is flown by two Air Corps personnel, with a team of specialist gardaí operating surveillance equipment in the aircraft’s rear.[ €120m expansion plan for Casement Aerodrome to house growing Air Corps fleetOpens in new window ]Its mission is exclusively intelligence gathering and surveillance. The aircraft is designed to operate at high altitude, invisible to people on the ground, and it can remain in the air for hours at a time.In previous years, the Garda aircraft has been used to monitor activity by organised crime groups and subversives, although its exact activities are a closely guarded secret.