Essex Air Ambulance is an air ambulance

Air ambulance

An air ambulance is an aircraft used for emergency medical assistance in situations where either a traditional ambulance cannot reach the scene easily or quickly enough, or the patient needs to be transported over a distance or terrain that makes air transportation the most practical transport....

 service serving the county of Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 and surrounding areas, in the east

East of England

The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region.Its...

 of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is one of twenty-five air ambulance services in the United Kingdom

Air Ambulances in the United Kingdom

There are a number of air ambulance services in the United Kingdom using either helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft. Thirty helicopters, all operated by commercial companies and funded by charitable organisations, cover England and Wales...

.

The charity began fundraising in 1997 and the service began operating in July the following year, and has flown over 11,000 missions since — being deployed two to four times per day. The helicopter is based at New Hall School in Boreham

Boreham

Boreham is a village and civil parish, in Essex, England. It is located approximately northeast from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the borough of Chelmsford and parliamentary constituency of Saffron Walden.- History :...

, near Chelmsford

Chelmsford

Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England and the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately northeast of Charing Cross, London, and approximately the same distance from the once provincial Roman capital at Colchester...

.

Service

Essex Air Ambulance provides helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) during daylight hours to the county of Essex and surrounding areas if required. A significant portion of missions are to traffic collisions on the busy, congested Essex road network.

The air ambulance costs in the region of £250,000 per month to fund all costs and aircraft operations.

In April 2007 the Essex Air Ambulance charity combined to form the Essex & Hertfordshire Air Ambulance Trust (EHAAT) responsible for both the Essex and Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

 air ambulance services. The Hertfordshire Air Ambulance was introduced on 5 November 2008, and both services coordinate in the event of a major incident. Operational control is from the East of England Ambulance Service Control at Broomfield, Essex

Broomfield, Essex

Broomfield is a village and residential suburb situated immediately to the north of Chelmsford, in central Essex. It is the site of a major Accident & Emergency hospital. There are two public houses as well as primary and secondary schools and sports clubs....

, who task the helicopters.

Helicopter

The first two helicopters used by Essex Air Ambulance were Bölkow 105s, from 1998 to 2003. The service was able to upgrade to a Eurocopter EC135

Eurocopter EC135

The Eurocopter EC135 is a twin-engine civil helicopter produced by Eurocopter, widely used amongst police and ambulance services and for executive transport. It is capable of flight under instrument flight rules .-Development:...

 in May 2003, then to a MD902 Explorer

MD Helicopters MD Explorer

|-See also:-References:* Jackson, Paul. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 2003–2004. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Information Group, 2003. ISBN 0 7106 2537 5.-External links:* *...

 on 1 June 2010, the same model used by the Hertfordshire Air Ambulance. The current helicopter is registered

Aircraft registration

An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...

 G-EHAA.

The MD902 is capable of flying at up to 150 mph, at an altitude of around 1,000ft, and can reach the farthest locations from its base within fifteen minutes and any of Essex's major hospitals within eight. It is usually airborne within two minutes of the emergency call being received.

Crew

The air ambulance is typically crewed by one of three pilots, one of six paramedics and one of three doctors of at least registrar qualification, enabling vital pre-hospital skills and techniques to be brought to a patient as early as possible. The helicopter can carry up to two patients, one on a stretcher and one sitting.

When the helicopter is unable to operate, perhaps due to adverse weather conditions or essential maintenance, the crew can deploy in a specialist four-wheel drive

Four-wheel drive

Four-wheel drive, 4WD, or 4×4 is a four-wheeled vehicle with a drivetrain that allows all four wheels to receive torque from the engine simultaneously...

vehicle, equipped with much of the same medical equipment as the helicopter.