Air Ambulance Lands On St John’s Road, Ryde! (Updated – More photos now)

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance has just landed in the middle of St John’s Road, Ryde.

Air Ambulance Lands On St John's Road, Ryde!Simon Cooke, who lives nearby, got in touch with VentnorBlog to send us a photo and tell us about the incident.

Initially he and his family wondered if the massive noise might be a noisy street cleaning lorry, but it soon became clear that it was the Air Ambulance.

The Air Ambulance left at around 10.50am without any patients. Simon tells us that a couple from Player Street got into a regular ambulance which had arrived 20 minutes after the air ambulance. This left without sirens.

Simon reckoned around 200 hundred people had come out to watch the helicopter leave. Just prior to take off, an air paramedic stayed outside the chopper whilst they spun the rotors up to make sure they were clear. There was very little margin for error as blades were overhanging pavement.

Well done to everyone involved.

Our thoughts are with the family.

UPDATE 13:27
Many thanks to another Simon, who took the photos of the helicopter in the air and above. Fantastic shots. Just added to the gallery.

UPDATE 10:52
Click on images for full version. To see the other pages of photos, click the numbers located at the bottom of the thumbnails of the photos.

[nggallery id=273 ngg_gal_ShowDescription=desc]

Location

View Isle of Wight in a larger map

Advertisement
Subscribe
Email updates?
37 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
witchfinder general
13, March 2011 11:04 am

What a pilot! B#**s of steel.

wightgeek
Reply to  witchfinder general
13, March 2011 11:42 am

Indeed. I got the impression it wasn’t something he does every day as he was taking photos with the rest of us!

JG
Reply to  wightgeek
13, March 2011 12:21 pm

Total respect to them! Hope it reminds people to donate when they can! :-)

Disillusioned
Reply to  witchfinder general
13, March 2011 5:41 pm

It may have been a woman

Lee
13, March 2011 12:24 pm

Yes, well done for doing it, but what had happened for an Air Ambulance to land there anyway?

Don Smith
Reply to  Lee
14, March 2011 10:24 pm

Prince William popped over to see one of his army mates to see if he could go skiing:-)

DaveQ
13, March 2011 2:48 pm

Watch out, Pugh will want to charge for landing an aircraft on a public highway!!!

cath
Reply to  DaveQ
14, March 2011 8:29 am

Oh dear God. Have you really got so little else to think about?

DaveQ
Reply to  cath
14, March 2011 8:45 am

My comment was intended to add a little humour, unfortnately there are people like you with no sense of humour. I have total admiration for the crews of Air Ambulances, many years before they even existed, I owed my life to the crew and medics of an RAF helicopter who saved my life following a landmine explosion in the mountains of Arabia.

LooLoo
Reply to  DaveQ
14, March 2011 9:01 am

I’m beginning to wonder whether political correctness has gone mad in this country. Sadly many people have become so serious they find it difficult to see any humour unless it is politically correct.

montana sliver
13, March 2011 5:03 pm

So was this just an exercise?
Why close a main route on the Island? Why not just take the emergency patient by ambulance to Simeon street Recreation ground to be picked up by the air ambulance as landing in such a confined space has got to be a risk if not absolutely necessary.

wightgeek
Reply to  montana sliver
13, March 2011 5:41 pm

It could be that there was no other conventional ambulance available as it as a good 20+ minutes before one arrived by road – in which the patient(s) went away.

There was a paramedic in attendance beforehand & I guess their initial assessment was that it was an emergency. It was quite surreal though.

billy
Reply to  wightgeek
13, March 2011 10:22 pm

The person on scene first was not a paramedic, she was a manager, there were no paramedic ambulances available at that time,

Sailor Sam
Reply to  billy
13, March 2011 10:57 pm

Lord help us! What happens if there is a major emergency then?

billy
Reply to  Sailor Sam
14, March 2011 10:39 am

People do not realise that there are only ever 4 ambulances on duty at any time and sometimes 1 or even 2 get sent to the mainland with patients, there is even talk about only having 3 ambulances at night even though the islands population is bigger, there is only 1st responder cover in west wight now and only 1 station, Freshwater, Shanklin and Ryde ambulance station… Read more »

david ford
Reply to  montana sliver
14, March 2011 8:47 pm

Hi im a volunteer for the hampshire and isle of wight air ambulance they dont sent this out willy nilly as it could be needed else where. With this new helicopter they are highly trained and can land any where in an emergency. Just today it came into shanklin and landed in atherly road car park at about 1400 hrs but im not sure why it needed… Read more »

Aviator
13, March 2011 5:45 pm

Looks to me like it was an unessential landing, the road is very obviously too narrow and I think at first glance, he put himself and others in danger.

I wonder what the CAA will make of it? If a pilot landed so close to hazards like these in any other circumstances, he would face a huge fine.

montana sliver
13, March 2011 6:08 pm

Well he must have circled for at least 10 minutes prior to landing, there is usually an ambulance parked up waiting for a call out on the seafront at that time of the morning. If they had to land how about the large empty plot on Park Road where the BT social club has been demolished, that is a stones throw away. Looks like an exercise to… Read more »

Karen Gentleman
Reply to  montana sliver
14, March 2011 1:03 pm

No, he didn’t circle for that long at all.

JJ
Reply to  Karen Gentleman
14, March 2011 1:23 pm

It must have been about that long when including the amount of time he was hovering trying to land. seemed to be having problems

sharon
13, March 2011 6:38 pm

sorry, it was an man who suffered a heart attack

montana sliver
13, March 2011 7:36 pm

Well sorry to hear that but it still looks to me to have been treated as an exercise as helicopters have in the past landed at the recreation ground. They could have landed there a lot faster and easier and the local ol’ bill could have rushed them up the road, they love an excuse to turn their sirens on.

saints
13, March 2011 8:39 pm

to all you sad people (i would use stronger)who are criticizingly the air Ambulance get a life they are amazing people and skillful pilots.Lets just hope u don’t need them one day and hope they can land close to u….

Sailor Sam
Reply to  saints
13, March 2011 9:01 pm

Not sure people are actually criticising the crew of the helicopter. More so the use of the resorse in such circumstances and the choice of landing site. Perhaps the initial information passed to the ambulance service was some what exaggerated but clearly the air ambulance (which costs about £1k an our to operate) was not required.

Aviator
Reply to  saints
13, March 2011 10:47 pm

Even well intentioned skilful pilots make mistakes. To me, this looks like it was exactly that.

david ford
Reply to  saints
14, March 2011 8:51 pm

most of the pilots who fly these amazing helicoptors are R A F trained and have amazing skills

montana sliver
13, March 2011 8:54 pm

Get a life??? what on earth are you talking about? If I did need an air ambulance what difference could it possibly make if it landed 50 yards from me at the closest safe distance? This is a narrow road in a densely populated urban area close to where I live and I don’t think I should be put in a position of danger unless that is… Read more »

saints
14, March 2011 8:04 am

sad just sad little people….

Sailor Sam
14, March 2011 9:37 am

The nuts and bolts of this issue simply demonstrates how poor our emergency system is… and we are talking about moving the contol centre to the mainland! I am not having a go at the crews BUT it is a bit much to hear that there was no road ambulance available at that time on a Sunday morning so the only option was to scramble the helicopter.… Read more »

billy
Reply to  Sailor Sam
14, March 2011 10:51 am

This is supposed to be a quiet time for the ambulance service, Wait until the summer when our popolation doubles, people will find themselves waiting at home with first responders. Don’t assume you will be seen by a paramedic within 8 minutes if you call an ambulance.

montana sliver
14, March 2011 12:24 pm

Yes very worrying that we have been left with such sparse coverage. This should ring alarm bells with anyone other than those poor bewildered wretches blissful in their blind faith that anything they don’t understand will just turn out ok because its in the hands of the authorities.

Sandown Sally
14, March 2011 12:43 pm

Once you realise thast when you dial 999 the emergency services may not actually rush to your aid, life becomes more frightening. This happened to me, no-one came for 40 minutes, despite the control room agreeing it was an emergency. The Island often has bare 999 cover.

david ford
14, March 2011 9:38 pm

Alot of these people dont know what they are talking about

billy
Reply to  david ford
15, March 2011 8:19 pm

As someone who isn’t a volunteer and actually works full time for the emergency services, people still have a right to express the concerns they have about the Islands services, Everyone does the best they can with the resources they have but sometimes delays do happen, In fact, without volunteers and community responders, it would be even worse, Especially the communtity responder in East Cowes, he is… Read more »

chantell
14, March 2011 10:45 pm

I had just lit a ciggie after we heard it going over the first time and i was looking out the window when it came over again and i shouted to my dave that it was flying very low. dave said shall i get the chairs out the front and we went and sat out and watched as it came back over and i had lit another… Read more »

Neanderthals
16, March 2011 9:19 am

Ha ha, this is a spoof right? yeh werl our den sez he dunn over 200 ours on tombraider (kep gettin stuc inna pirrymid ov doom) and woont think nuffin ov landin a choppr inna streete in fact my kev dunn it sevrall times on goggle maps so it must be tru

Leo
16, March 2011 3:27 pm

Some people have trouble parking the car… This is total skill :D

reCaptcha Error: grecaptcha is not defined