Air ambulance flies 30,000th mission

Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance costs about £13m to run each year

An air ambulance from Lincolnshire has completed a landmark 30,000th mission – in its 30th anniversary year.

Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance has thanked the public for keeping the service running, at an average cost of £13m a year.

Chief pilot Llewis Ingamells said the charity and its supporters had achieved "an incredible feat".

The milestone mission saw crew members sent to an incident in Market Rasen in the early hours of October 30. They treated two women and a child, who were taken to hospital.

Crews are called out four times a day on average

The air ambulance is based next to RAF Waddington, near Lincoln, and can reach any part of the region within 20 minutes.

Crews respond to an average of four incidents a day, at an average cost of £4,000.

The helicopter can be called out at any time of the day or night and has a team of specialist paramedics, doctors and pilots.

Chief executive Karen Jobling said the charity "receives no government funding and has only come this far thanks to everyone who continues to support us".

Chief pilot Llewis Ingamells says the service has come a long way over the past 30 years

The charity began in 1994 as the Lincolnshire Air Ambulance, before being extended to Nottinghamshire in the following year.

However, the first helicopter, a former police Bolkow model, could only fly when the charity had enough money to launch it, meaning it was often grounded for months at a time.

Crews have carried out almost 1,500 missions this year, including 141 last month.

Mr Ingamells paid tribute to the "guys who started this" and said he thought they would not "believe what we're doing in this day and age".

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