New addition to charity helicopter fleet

A new upgraded air ambulance helicopter has entered Midlands Air Ambulance charity’s fleet.

Registered with the call sign ‘G-RMAA’, the £7 million Airbus helicopter was introduced to the service in February from the organisation’s RAF Cosford airbase in Shropshire.

The new helicopter was officially unveiled on Monday 26^th February by the charity’s chairman, Brendan Connor with supportive charity ambassadors, John Challis, Sir Lee Pearson CBE and Neil Back MBE.

The lifesaving charity operates three strategically located air ambulance helicopters across six Midlands counties.

In addition to the new wholly owned H145 helicopter, the charity owns a H135 helicopter, and will continue to lease one further H135 aircraft from its aviation partner, Babcock Mission Critical Services.

The larger H145 air ambulance helicopter was originally built by Airbus in Germany, and received its medical fit out at Babcock in Staverton, Gloucestershire. Charity ambassadors Mike Tindall MBE and Nigel Mansell were present on the day of the delivery of the new helicopter to the charity’s RAF Cosford airbase earlier this month.

The new helicopter will undertake an average of three air ambulance missions every day and will provide a great number of benefits to patient care within the Midlands.

It travels greater distances without the need for refuelling and enables the aircrew to respond even faster due to increased speed capability.

The larger interior means additional aircrew can be flown to major incident scenes, and further medical equipment can be carried on board to treat more complex emergencies.

Brendan Connor, chairman of Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, said: “Excellent pre-hospital patient care is at the heart of everything we do.

"To support our mission, build resilience, and strengthen the long-term sustainability of the charity, we made the strategic decision to invest a proportion of donations into a larger, upgraded H145 model.

"The new airframe will enable us to reduce our operating costs and complements our plans to further improve pre-hospital care in the region.”