Thrillseeking Fundraisers Get Chopper Crash Training
Our reporter, Dominic Johnson, heads to AIS Training to learn how to escape from a sinking helicopter as it's hoped other brave volunteers will raise thousands of pounds for the Great North Air Ambulance.
Brave volunteers are being given the chance to learn how to escape a sinking helicopter to help raise money for the Great North Air Ambulance.
We sent our reporter, Dominic Johnson, to AIS Training in North Shields to try it out for us...
AIS hope to help the Great North Air Ambulance service by offering people the chance to try out an upside-down underwater dunking experience in a mock helicopter in return for cash for the charity.
You can find out how you can get involved at the bottom of this page.
It's all happening on Saturday 5th December in the survival pool at AIS’s, 12 acre industrial training village near the Tyne Tunnel.
Willing victims will be kitted out in a survival suit, taken into a mock helicopter rig and raised to the roof of the offshore survival centre before being lowered into the pool.
As part of the experience the helicopter will then flip over and anyone taking part will need to escape by climbing out of the windows underwater.
The experience mirrors part of the training that every worker in the oil and gas industry needs to undertake before going offshore as it prepares them for an emergency such as a helicopter crash.
Grahame Pickering, chief executive of GNAAS, said: "We'd like to thank AIS for thinking of us and offering up their facilities to make this possible.
"As unusual fundraising events go, this is right up there. The money raised will go to supporting the air ambulance's work throughout the region, so we hope plenty of people get behind it."
AIS is aiming to raise at least £5,000 and anyone taking part will be expected to raise a minimum of £100 in sponsorship.
You can still claim a place, if you're brave enough, by emailing charityevent@aisgroup.co.uk with your name and contact details.
Alternatively you can call 0844 800 1810 for more details.
They're also holding an open day event at the same time and anyone looking for a career in energy, construction, engineering and heavy industry can head to the centre to get advice and guidance.