London's Air Ambulance Gets Second Helicopter

Laura Reynolds
By Laura Reynolds Last edited 101 months ago
London's Air Ambulance Gets Second Helicopter
Photo: Jon Le Ray

London's Air Ambulance has bought a second emergency helicopter, seven months after launching a fundraising campaign to do so.

The Your London Your Helicopter campaign has raised £4m of its £6m target. The money raised so far has allowed the charity to purchase a used MD902 Explorer, and convert it to meet UK regulations. It's hoped it will be in use from early next year.

Graham Hodgkin, Chief Executive Officer at London’s Air Ambulance, described the acquisition as “a truly exciting development for London and the biggest step-change in our service resilience in the charity’s history".

However, more money is needed to fund running costs of the second helicopter and extend London Air Ambulance's summer daylight flying hours for the next five years. If this is achieved, the charity estimates that it will be able to reach an additional 400 patients a year by air.

This year, the charity flew longer hours in the summer months for the first time in its history and, as a result, it was able to reach, and treat, a further 67 patients.

If you want to make a donation to the ongoing campaign, you can do so here.

Last year, we spent a day with London's Air Ambulance at the Whitechapel headquarters:

Last Updated 01 October 2015