Niall O'Connor

IRELAND’S FLEET OF single-engine military transport and surveillance aircraft has been grounded for the last eight weeks due to missing maintenance deadlines. 

Just one PC-12 aircraft has been available in September.

The aircraft plays a critical role in surveillance during the EU Presidency and other operations that require it to orbit above events. It also acts as a transport aircraft for the government and other missions. 

The four single-engine PC12 planes, built by Pilatus in Switzerland, cost the Irish State close to €50 million to buy in 2020.

It is less than a year since another issue with the fleet’s maintenance. In November 2025 the Air Corps was forced to stand down an air ambulance mission.

A Defence Forces spokesman said that the aircraft are currently grounded because of a maintenance scheduling “anomaly”.

“A routine review by Air Corps Aeronautical Engineers identified that a very small number of scheduled maintenance items were misaligned between schedules on the aircraft’s maintenance tracking software and expectations of the timing of those schedules, as per manufacturer requirements and recommendations.

“As a precautionary measure, the Air Corps has temporarily paused PC-12 flying operations while this scheduling anomaly is addressed,” he said. 

The PC-12s – a plane purchased by the Defence Forces to act as a workhorse – are used for everything from surveillance to transport and small cargo missions and air ambulance flights to Britain and elsewhere. They were used extensively during the Covid-19 pandemic to bring tests to Germany.

The main issue faced by the Irish Air Corps is the shortage of technicians to maintain the aircraft. The problem of a shortage of critical aircraft maintainers faced by the Irish Air Corps was raised in a recent Oireachtas Committee on Defence and National Security by military representative bodies.

Sources have said that because of the shortage of staff, keeping up with maintenance regimes is unachievable.  

The Defence Forces spokesman also said that the PC-12 aircraft holds current Military Airworthiness Review Certificates (MARCs).

He added that the “current pause is a maintenance scheduling matter”.

The Defence Forces said that in line with best practice, the Air Corps carries out scheduled maintenance on the PC-12 fleet at intervals prescribed by the aircraft manufacturer, all scheduled through a Maintenance Information System.

“All maintenance is carried out by appropriately qualified and approved maintenance personnel in accordance with manufacturer requirements.

“The aircraft will resume flying operations when the Air Corps is confident that the scheduling misalignment has been fully addressed and rectified. As this is an ongoing process, no cost has been finalised on addressing the scheduling anomaly,” the spokesman said. 

A statement was requested from the Department of Defence.  

Sources have said that the grounding has caused some logistical issues for the Silver Swallows display team attending an event tomorrow with the world-famous Red Arrows at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.

That display will go ahead after a solution was found to transport the support team to the event.