Drone operators are being warned not to fly near air ambulances during emergency responses. This follows an incident where drones flying close to a Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) helicopter resulted in a seven-minute delay in transporting a critically ill patient to hospital.
In a more recent event, two doctors, a paramedic and a pilot from GNAAS attended reports of an assault in Spennymoor on the evening of Tuesday, 14 October.
Working alongside the North East Ambulance Service to assess a patient, they were about to depart when they encountered a drone flying perilously close to their helicopter. Hollie Smith, a GNAAS paramedic, stated: "As we were lifting from an incident in Spennymoor, we were forced to abort the take off and shut down the aircraft due to the presence of a