October 30th - Scottish Charity Air Ambulance Visit

On Saturday 30th October, 10 club members braved the inclement weather and joined members of Driving Scotland and the Aberdeen Aston Martin Owners Club for a behind the scenes visit to the Scottish Charity Air Ambulance base at Aberdeen Airport.

Upon arrival, we were greeted with refreshments before receiving a very informative set of presentations which covered the background to the setting up of the charity, the organisation, the role of the paramedics and finally the operation of the helicopter – all very ably presented by staff, paramedics, pilots and volunteers.

We then split into smaller groups to receive smaller presentations on the Eurocopter EC135-T2i , the ground support vehicle and the various items of hi-tech support equipment required to make this charity operation a highly effective intervention tool over rural Northeast Scotland and beyond. 

Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance responds, on average, to one time-critical emergency call out every single day. They are a national charity and receive no statutory government funding, so rely 100% on donations from the public to fuel the life-saving flights. There is a sister SCAA base at Perth and Scotland is unique in the UK in that there are also two Government funded Air Ambulances – between them, these 4 bases cover the whole of Scotland.

SCAA currently operates two helicopters, both EC135-T2is, and two rapid response vehicles - taking life-saving pre-hospital care to the scene of time-critical emergencies. SCAA then transports patients to hospitals all over Scotland to receive the most appropriate medical care.

Special thanks to Mark Ryan of Driving Scotland for organising the trip, and to Nick Harvey, Deputy CEO of SCAA for hosting the visit.

For more information and details of how you can support this very worthwhile charity, please visit https://www.scaa.org.uk/.