The NHS is taking thousands of cabin crew members on board to join forces with doctors and nurses to save lives in the UK's fight to beat coronavirus.
The new initiative, which is set to be launched in the coming weeks, will see around 13,000 cabin crew staff asked to support NHS employees on the frontline.
Practically all flights are grounded and will remain so for the foreseeable future, but NHS chiefs have recruited airline staff to provide vital support.
Many cabin crew members are first aid trained or hold other clinical qualifications. They are also security cleared, and the new scheme would see them work alongside experienced clinicians to change beds and carry out other non-clinical tasks to help doctors and nurses on the wards.
Anyone who decides to sign up will receive expert training and could be deployed to one of the new hospitals being built in London, Birmingham and Manchester.
A spokesman for easyJet said the company was "proud" to be asked, while Virgin Atlantic said it was "grateful" for all the work that the NHS is doing.
'The NHS is mobilising like never before, but the scale of this challenge has not been seen in peacetime'
Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, said: "Nurses, doctors and other vital health and social care staff are working day and night to provide the best possible care to patients as the NHS continues to fight this global health pandemic.
"The NHS is mobilising like never before, but the scale of this challenge has not been seen in peacetime so we need all the support we can get.
"Thousands of nurses, medics and other expert staff are returning to work alongside us, but we need everyone to do their bit - whether that is working in one of our current health or social care services, working in the Nightingale Hospital, volunteering to help the NHS or following government advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives."
Staff and volunteers working at the new hospitals will also be offered free accommodation, while those staying in the hotels will have breakfast provided and lunch or dinner depending on the shifts that they are working.
St John Ambulance are also supplying hundreds of volunteers to help staff the first Nightingale hospital at the ExCeL centre in London.
