Prince William's air ambulance in near miss with drone
Prince William’s air ambulance came within half a second of a collision with a remote-controlled drone, an aviation report has revealed.
A report by the UK Airprox Board, which investigates near-collisions in UK airspace, said that ‘a collision had only been narrowly avoided’ and disaster was averted by pure ‘chance’.
The incident happened at 1,900ft at 7.45pm on August 26 last year when the helicopter had three medical staff and two pilots on board.
The Duke of Cambridge regularly pilots the helicopter, codenamed Anglia Two, but was not on board at the time.
Police on the ground were alerted, but failed to capture the operator of the drone, which was flying well above the legal height.
The device is thought to be about eight inches across.
A report rated the incident as a Category A incident due to there being a ‘serious risk of collision’.