Plea to parents after failed air ambulance landing

An air ambulance had to abandon its initial approach to a critically ill patient because a young child ran "straight towards" the helicopter.

Wiltshire and Bath Air Ambulance was flying to a patient on 30 March and had identified a suitable place to land in a park in Swindon.

However, chief pilot Matt Wilcock said he had to abort the landing when a child "came running in".

While it landed successfully on the second attempt, the team was further delayed getting to the patient due to a "wall" of young children trying to get to the helicopter.

Mr Wilcock said the children's parents seemed to be "oblivious to the risks associated" with interacting with the aircraft.

"We've got a tail rotor that's spinning around at nearly 5,000 times a minute, and it's right at the head height of a small child," he explained.

"Everyone was stood there dumbfounded that the helicopter was coming into this park and were just watching.

"The parents with the child just seemed to be stood there watching. I saw another bystander that came running out to try to intercept the child, but it didn't look like they were going to make it, so we had to overshoot."

He added that on the successful attempt at landing, the doctor had to quickly "run out" to stop a "wall" of children aged about five and six from running towards the helicopter, which still had its rotors turning.

He believes the incidents delayed the team by two or three minutes, and said that time could seriously impact the care of critically ill patients.

He confirmed he had subsequently talked to the parents about their "responsibility to manage their children".

While the charity encourages people to interact with them, Mr Wilcock said it had to be at an appropriate time.

"They [children] are our future, so why not give them a good briefing about what we're doing and how they can help? But in a controlled manner, that's all we're asking.

"We'll show you around the helicopter," he added. "We'll do as much as we can until we need to move on to the next job."

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