Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex marks 10 years of night flights

Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) in the United Kingdom marked the 10^th anniversary of flying at night on 29 September 2023.

KSS became the first air ambulance in the UK to fly 24/7 on 29 September 2013, when it attended to a patient involved in a road traffic collision near Canterbury, then treated them and accompanied them to hospital.

Since then, KSS has carried out 4,106 missions by helicopter at night, treating 2,355 patients and flying for 2,000 hours.

Professor Richard Lyon MBE, Executive Director of Research and Innovation, and Deputy Medical Director, said: “Accidents don’t stop happening when the sun sets. In fact, some of our most serious incidents occur in the hours of darkness. In 2012, we undertook an innovative simulation study that suggested that patients across our region could benefit from our life-saving medical intervention every night.

“Based on this result, we became the first air ambulance charity in the UK to fly 24/7, 365 days a year, using the most advanced systems at the time with a new state-of-the-art helicopter, two pilots and the entire medical crew using night vision goggles. This allowed us to deliver the same quality of rapid critical care by air to all of our KSS patients, regardless of the time of day.”

Chief Pilot at KSS Nick Bramley explained the difference between day and nighttime flying: “Flying at night is more challenging than flying by day. Vision and depth perception are both reduced, and it requires a lot more concentration because everything is different. It’s a subtle difference, just as driving a car by night feels different.”

He added that “when pilots join KSS they go through a NVIS [night vision imaging system] course, so they join fully qualified to fly day or night. They then undergo intensive training over several months to develop those skills.”