New air ambulance touches down at Newquay base

Monday, 7 July 2025 20:34

Pic: Andy Holter Photography

Cornwall Air Ambulance’s second lifesaving helicopter has officially arrived at the charity’s airbase near Newquay.

The new AW169, G-CNLL, was delivered from Leonardo Helicopters in Italy earlier this year and has since undergone several months of medical fitting at Gama Aviation in Gloucester to convert it into a fully functioning critical care aircraft.

The arrival marks a major milestone in the charity’s history and was made possible thanks to public generosity during the 18-month Heli2 Appeal, which raised £2.85 million towards the additional aircraft.

Tim Bunting, Chief Executive, said:
“This is a momentous day for Cornwall Air Ambulance and the people of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. We were the very first UK air ambulance service – and our latest arrival today will help us continue to save many more lives and provide the best possible service.
Thanks to the generosity of a huge number of people, we now have two state-of-the-art helicopters at our disposal. This enables us to provide the very best possible critical care service to those who need us. We could not have done this without your support – so on behalf of all of us here at the charity, thank you.”

Owning a second AW169 will significantly boost the service’s versatility, capability and resilience by enabling crews to reach more missions by air across their 365-day-a-year operation.

Adam Smith, Unit Chief Pilot, said:
“We’re delighted to now have the second AW169 here with us at the airbase. Several of our pilot team were lucky enough to carry out the ferry flight from Italy to the UK, and it’s great to see that final leg of the journey completed today. Robust checks and inspections have already been carried out, and the team now looks forward to conducting the final test flights over the next few weeks.”

The aircraft will now undergo a ‘shakedown’ period, where pilots complete around 20 hours of flight testing before G-CNLL enters full operation.

The public will have their first chance to see the new helicopter up close at the charity’s blue light festival, Helifest, taking place on Saturday 19th July at Scorrier House near Redruth. Find out more about the event here.

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