A politician is calling for Alderney's runway to be extended to accommodate the Channel islands Air Ambulance plan.
After a change of contract, the Channel Islands' Air Ambulance service is now being operated by Gama Aviation
Gama use the same planes as previously owned by Capital. Due to the plane’s crosswind restrictions, the weather would have to be absolutely perfect for them to land in Alderney. So there are occasions where they could land there but the risk of the weather not being quite as required is too big to use planes like that for Alderney on a regular basis.
States of Guernsey statement Whilst an Aurigny plane is available for medivac during the day, it does not operate overnight.
Alderney representative Steve Roberts says the runway needs to be extended to accommodate the service.
We have to rely on a helicopter from the mainland or a lifeboat. This can be very crucial - in the instance of someone having a bleed on the brain, someone needing surgery, we have no surgeon on the island - we have a wonderful hospital but we don't have that sort of cover. So one hour can be really crucial.
Steve Roberts, Alderney Representative in the States of Guernsey
