Valley SK enroute west of Eire
Currently airborne is a Sea King from Valley enroute to a vessel 220 miles west of Eire. It had to refuel on the west coast to carry on it's journey westwards (5.5hrs endurance and 2hrs ETA to vessel) to see if they can winch down and get the casualty off to Shannon. A Nimrod is on scene already and providing top cover.
My point is, the Irish Air Corps stood down their Air Rescue last year and the Irish coastguard now provides all air-sea rescues with S-61s.
They have one based at Sligo in NW Eire. Why has the RAF been tasked for this? has the S-61 insufficient range to carry out this rescue or are the Irish Coastguard helo's not properly equipped for night ops in rough weather?