LONDON'S life-saving air ambulance was left damaged in a freak incident after being called to a road accident.

One of the rotor blades of the MD Explorer emergency helicopter was damaged when the down draught sucked part of a loose shop sign into the rotor as it landed in Welling High Street at around 2pm last Saturday.

The air ambulance had been called out from its base at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, to a woman who suffered head injuries in the accident.

The woman was taken, with a medical team, by land ambulance to King's College Hospital in Denmark Hill.

But the damage to the helicopter's rotor blade was so severe that it was unable to take off again.

The air ambulance medical team, consisting of a senior trauma doctor, paramedic and a medical observer, was transferred into a police patrol car and driven back to Whitechapel.

In the meantime, Welling High Street had to be closed as the helicopter crew waited for a replacement blade to arrive from Gloucester.

The new blade was fitted and safety checks were carried out before the air ambulance was able to fly to Woolwich, where it was still undergoing repairs and checks on Monday.

In the meantime, air ambulance crews were forced to go to calls using the service's two rapid response vehicles, which are routinely used when the helicopter cannot fly at night or in bad weather.

A spokesman for London Air Ambulance said in this case, because of the location, a medical decision had already been taken that the injured woman would not be airlifted to hospital, so the accident had not compromised her condition.

He said the damage incident was still being investigated.

Bexley police said Welling High Street between Danson Lane and Upper Wickham Lane was closed to traffic at 1pm, because of the accident, believed to have involved a bus.

But following the damage to the air ambulance, police officers were on duty to divert traffic while the road remained closed until 8pm, when the helicopter was able to take to the air again.

  • The London Air Ambulance first flew in 1988.
  • It can reach any location within the M25 in less than 15 minutes and usually less than 10 minutes.
  • The service costs £1.4m a year to run. Virgin pays half the leasing cost of the helicopter. The rest of the costs are paid for by the NHS and public donations.
  • Costs have risen 40 per cent in the last two years due to insurance and maintenance costs which will reach £750,000-plus this year.
  • The air ambulance has two trauma teams on call seven days a week from 7am until sunset.
  • After winning the bid against other London hospitals, the Royal London Hospital built a rooftop helipad from where the air ambulance has flown 16,000 missions to date.