Cornwall's Air Ambulance is being delayed by aircraft flying over the charity's helipad
They have asked Newquay Airport to address the issue.
Last updated 26th Sep 2020
Cornwall Air Ambulance has said that it has had to delay responding to emergency calls due to aircraft flying over its helipad.
The charity highlighted concerns about the delays and has called on Cornwall Airport Newquay to address the issue.
The problem was raised by the charity, which is based at the airport, at a meeting of the Cornwall Airport Newquay Consultative Forum yesterday.
It relates to flights around the airport being carried out by Cobham Helicopter Services which has a helicopter academy based at the airport.
Stephen Murdoch from Cornwall Air Ambulance said: “With regards to the routing of the Cobham training flights we have raised with the air traffic team and Cobham directly.
“There have been a number of occasions, and I witnessed it yesterday myself, where the Cobham training aircraft, carrying underslung loads, are being routed or taking a flight path directly over our helipad including when we want to start up to answer an alpha call sign mission.
“This is a safety issue for us, it is delaying our launch to critical care patients.
“I understood that the Cobham aircraft were not allowed to exit the runway centre line until they have cleared the airport boundary, which they are clearly not doing. Can this be addressed?”
In response Pete Downes, managing director of the airport, said that he would investigate the incidents and take the necessary steps to address the problem.
He said: “As you can appreciate that is one that we do take very seriously and I will follow up with Cobham and, obviously, with our air traffic control team to investigate those incidents and I would welcome further information and detail on that directly from you and we will ensure that any findings from that we take the necessary steps.
“First and foremost to ensure that we comply with the requirements for flying those underslung loads are maintained, but more importantly that Cornwall Air Ambulance is not delayed under any circumstances in terms of departing on critical call outs.”