Lincolnshire Air Ambulance Achieves 30,000th Mission Milestone

An air ambulance service operating from Lincolnshire has successfully completed its 30,000th mission, coinciding with its 30th anniversary year. The Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance expressed gratitude to the public for their support in maintaining the service, which incurs an average annual cost of £13m. Chief pilot Llewis Ingamells remarked that the charity and its supporters had accomplished “an incredible feat.” This significant mission involved the deployment of crew members to an incident in Market Rasen during the early hours of October 30. They provided medical attention to two women and a child, who were subsequently transported to a hospital. The air ambulance is stationed adjacent to RAF Waddington, near Lincoln, enabling it to reach any part of the region within 20 minutes. Crews respond to an average of four incidents daily, with each mission costing approximately £4,000. The helicopter is available for call-outs at any time, day or night, and is staffed by a team of specialist paramedics, doctors, and pilots. Chief executive Karen Jobling affirmed that the charity “receives no government funding and has only come this far thanks to everyone who continues to support us.” The charity was established in 1994 as the Lincolnshire Air Ambulance, before its operations were extended to Nottinghamshire the following year. However, the initial helicopter, a former police Bolkow model, could only operate when the charity possessed sufficient funds for its launch, often resulting in it being grounded for months at a time. Crews have conducted nearly 1,500 missions this year, including 141 during the previous month. Mr. Ingamells paid tribute to the “guys who started this” and expressed his belief that they would not “believe what we’re doing in this day and age.” Additional content from Lincolnshire can be accessed on BBC Sounds, and the latest episode of Look North is available for viewing. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content of external sites and outlines its policy on external linking.