Garda Air Support Unit

The Garda Air Support Unit (or GASU) is a unit of An Garda Síochána which was formed in 1997. The GASU is part of the Operational Support Unit which provides specialist support to Gardaí nationwide. The Operational Support Unit also includes the Water Support, Dog Support and Mounted Support Units.

The GASU's aircraft are maintained and flown by the Irish Air Corps, and based at Casement Aerodrome near Dublin. The unit operates a Britten-Norman BN 2T-4S Defender 4000 aircraft, and two EC 135 T1 helicopters. A Eurocopter AS355N Squirrel helicopter was in use by the unit up until January 2008 - when it was replaced by a second EC 135 T1.

The Garda Air Support Unit contributed directly to 1,300 arrests within the last three years, and located 14 people during search and rescue operations. GASU responsibilities include providing an active support role for the Garda Síochána and 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.
• Collecting footage from the air at a major event

External links

• Official website