A careless drone user almost flew straight into the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) last night, leading the pilot of the helicopter to take drastic action to avoid a crash which could have killed four emergency services personnel.
The YAA was flying back to its base in Nostell at around 6:50pm yesterday (Wednesday) when a paramedic sitting in the front seat spotted a drone less than three metres away from the helicopter.
Only the fast actions of the pilot avoided an 'unthinkable disaster' which could have resulted in the four fatalities if the drone had hit the YAA.
The charity's chief pilot has hit out at the the drone user, who put the lives of the YAA crew 'in extreme danger' by flying the machine at more 1,300ft - more than three times the legal height.
'The consequences don’t bare thinking about if a direct strike had occurred'
Chief pilot Steve Waudby said: "We cannot stress enough the seriousness of what happened last night to the crew of HM98.
"It was only due to the vigilance of our front seat paramedic spotting the drone, and the rapid reaction of our Pilot that the crew avoided a direct collision.
"It is estimated that they missed the drone by less than three metres in the end. The consequences don’t bare thinking about if a direct strike had occurred. We’d be telling a very different story today if it had.
"Whoever was operating this drone was doing so at an illegal height – the maximum height it should have been operating at was 120m or 400ft, so as you can see, this drone was flying over three times the height it should have been at.
"Whether the operator is aware or not, they have put the lives of our crew in extreme danger.
"I would appeal to the operator to please come forward and identify themselves – we have a very clear description of what the drone looked like and it was very, very distinctive.
"The police have been made aware, as well as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) have also been notified. Again, I cannot stress the seriousness of what has happened."
The near miss came on the same day that YAA staff were working on a new promotional video to make people more aware about drone safety and to highlight the dangers of ignoring the laws of flying them in certain areas or at certain heights.
'The pilot's prompt actions avoided the most unthinkable disaster'
Peter Sunderland, chairman of the YAA, said: "Firstly I would like to pay tribute to our pilot – his prompt and professional actions avoided the most unthinkable disaster.
"We are proud to have a team of highly skilled, ex-military pilots as part of our team, and last night’s incident just goes to highlight how important these professional Pilots are to the charity.
"Also to the two paramedics and Doctor who were on board – all of their intense training over the years came to fruition last night and I am proud of how they handled this incident. The crew are obviously shaken from what happened and we will be supporting them in any way we can."
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