Air ambulance service make £2.5m appeal for new helicopter

THE Great North Air Ambulance Service's future could be threatened unless it can raise £2.5m to pay the deposit on a brand new helicopter.

- By SAM VOLPE

That is because its existing helicopters are reaching the end of their service lives.

The charity has now launched an urgent appeal to raise the cash - and unveiled an ambitious plan to invest in three new state-of-the-art helicopters.

Bosses said that unless they can purchase a third helicopter, they could be forced to "scale back" operations.

Currently, the charity operates two helicopters across a vast geographical area - from North Yorkshire to the Isle of Man and the Scottish Borders.

However, a third helicopter had to be decommissioned in March last year - and given the ageing nature of the remaining two aircraft, this makes maintenance especially challenging.