little legs,

Police helicopters have always been in service. I know ours was operating throughout the airspace restrictions, but less frequently. Turbine powered aircraft were permitted to fly under VFR conditions below the advised altitude for emergecy and rescue missions, providing they took responcibility and risked assessed it. The ash debate is still under constant review but as far as I know, there is no restriction on helicopters.

Darren

The coastguard helicopters up here have continued to be used for medical emergency evacuations from Shetland and Orkney to the mainline but they have then been grounded immediately after each mission for the engines etc to be checked for damage and thorough cleaning. It is my unserstanding that a certain amount of damage has been caused and hence apart from emergencies their fleet was grounded for as long the restrictions for other aircraft were in place.

SM