In the space of only a few weeks, Scotland’s charity-funded helicopter air ambulance has become a key element of the country’s emergency response network.
“After only a month of operation, Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance has already proved itself indispensable,” said Health Secretary Alex Neil.
SCAA chief executive Gavin Davey said the hectic start to operations had exceeded expectations.
“We have flown more missions than we anticipated in our first month and have established ourselves as a safe, reliable and efficient charity air ambulance very quickly,” he said.
“SCAA has flown to save lives and transport casualties to hospitals, the majority being trauma cases.
“We have been all over Scotland to those involved in time-critical emergencies and transported them to hospitals by the quickest possible method in our Helimed 76 helicopter.
“Emergency callouts have seen the crew respond to a wide variety of incidents, including car and motorcycle accidents, medical emergencies such as heart attacks and breathing problems, trauma emergencies such as serious falls, head injuries and even a light aircraft crash.”
SCAA senior pilot Russell Myles said the flight crew had flown 42 missions, covering 3,500 miles in 30.5 flying hours.
“Our busiest day to date saw us make three emergency flights within a few hours and our furthest response has been to Mull off the west coast,” he said.
Mr Davey said two things have contributed to SCAA’s initial success more than anything else the central location of their operation at Perth Airport and the skills of the paramedics, pilots and engineers.
“We are extremely grateful to everyone for their support,” he said.
“With £1.5 million needed annually to keep SCAA flying, however, we do need more businesses, trusts and foundations to get behind us to secure this life-saving service for Scotland.”