Chinook helicopter training 'looked fantastic'

The aircraft landed on the island on Thursday evening

A chinook helicopter landed at a car park in Guernsey on Thursday as part of a Royal Air Force (RAF) training exercise.

The States of Guernsey said the aircraft landed at Port Soif car park at about 18:30 BST as part of resilience training for situations such as medivacs.

Assistant emergency planning officer for Guernsey, Derek Howlett, said the exercise "looked fantastic".

Mr Howlett said the exercise provided an opportunity for patient transfer training and testing out the new landing site, which was assessed last year.

"We've got a few landing sites around the island," he said.

"But because this one is hard standing we can have this one in the winter as well, as opposed to a soggy playing field."

Mr Howlett said training exercises such as this one are important for "familiarisation" for emergency services.

He said: "Basically we are just making sure that what we have planned in the background actually works properly."

Mr Howlett said the exercise went well and "everyone was astonished by the amount of down wash."