Episode 6 Helicopter Heroes

If you're critically ill or seriously injured in a place like this,

there's only one thing that can save you and that's speed.

It doesn't matter where you are, this helicopter with its highly trained team of pilots and

paramedics will fly to your rescue at two-and-a-half miles a minute.

These are Yorkshire's helicopter heroes.

When the people of England's biggest county dial 999 there's a

good chance help will come from the skies.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance is ready to scramble 365 days a year and

each one brings a new life or death emergency.

Today on Helicopter Heroes, a jockey falls at 40 miles an hour.

COMMENTATOR: Ras Laffan has fallen.

Paramedic Lee is worried for his unconscious patient.

She had a fit after she's landed.

The team are scrambled to save a driver who's been lucky to survive a smash with a milk tanker.

Argh! My leg, my leg!

A builder is trapped under his upturned truck.

We believe he's got an open fracture which means the bone is sticking out through the leg.

There's a helicopter crash high in the Pennines.

Now horse racing is a sport where women can compete with men on equal terms.

For once size really is on their side

and there's a growing band of female jockeys showing men just how to win.

But up in North Yorkshire one top woman rider's career has come to a crashing halt.

In North Yorkshire's racing country they're under starter's orders for the 2:10pm at Catterick.

COMMENTATOR: And they're off.

Cuccinello has jumped off quite some way behind the other runners.

One of today's runners isn't going to make it to the finishing line.

Ras Laffan is the favourite and amateur jockey Jacqueline Coward is looking good for a win.

They're being followed by the market leader Ras Laffan.

Until this happens.

In the home straight, where Ras Laffan has fallen.

The favourite's on the floor.

22-year-old Jacqueline badly needs an air ambulance.

The fall has knocked her unconscious and it may have broken her neck.

Helicopter from Leeds Bradford, en route to the Catterick races.

Request you provide information en route to Catterick. Out.

Jacqueline's family run an annual point to point to raise money for the Helimed team.

They're about to be very grateful they do.

It's quite unusual in my time with the air ambulance,

I've never actually been to a racecourse to collect a patient,

especially a jockey.

I like the races. I've been brought up with the races because my

dad is a big race goer, so I've been to Catterick races myself before.

The Jockey Club pay for ambulance paramedics to be at the racecourse

for the duration of the full meeting.

The meeting can't go ahead without our services there.

I know there will be a doctor there and jockeys are at speed as well, quite high speed.

40 miles an hour they'll be running at, some of them.

No horse I back has ever run at 40 miles an hour!

Before he became an air ambulance pilot,

Steve spent years flying wealthy businessmen around the country and saw his fair share of racecourses.

He knows today's mission may not be straightforward.

It depends where the fall is,

if they decided to carry on with the racing.

If he's fallen on the track, at the side, it could be difficult and

if it's close to the ring or the stables or any other place where the horses are,

it could be awkward as well because we all know race horses are highly strung, aren't they.

COMMENTATOR: Running up towards the line, it's Alloro

under an enterprising Lucy Horner, who will get home in front.

But there's good news for Steve.

The stewards have stopped further racing until Jacqueline's rescuers have left the track.

I don't know if they're in the med centre.

-No, they're still on the track at the course.

-Are they?

-Yeah.

-Oh, right.

There's no horses knocking around.

-We've got a yellow flag, mate.

-Yeah, cheers.

OK, we've got a camera platform, Steve, which is raised.

Steve's landing is being watched by a crowd of racegoers

and by thousands more at home on the punters' TV channel, Racing UK.

Jacqueline hasn't moved since she fell. She's deeply unconscious.

-Hi, mate.

-22 year-old female landed right side of her head, fitted on landing.

She's had a litre and a half of fluid.

-GCS has come up from three to five or six.

-Yeah.

Consciousness is measured by the Glasgow Coma Scale or GCS.

Jacqueline's level is still worryingly low.

She hit the ground at 40 miles an hour and without her description of

her symptoms the medical team don't know if she's injured her neck

or spine or even suffered brain damage.

-I can't find any other major injuries.

-Hi, guys.

Hi, hello. Hello. Hi, hello.

Ready when you are whenever you want to go, OK?

What she needs now is a speedy flight to hospital and that's where the Helimed team come in.

But Lee has just found out another worrying sign.

Jacqueline's injuries may be more serious than they seem.

She's had a fit after she's landed

which is significant of some head trauma.

A fit may indicate a brain injury.

The race to get the jockey to hospital just became even more urgent.

Coming up, Jacqueline is flown to hospital but her condition doesn't look good.

You can see in her eyes she's not with us very well at all.

There's an accident in one of Yorkshire's most beautiful dales.

He's got a nasty open femur, quite a lot of blood trapped in there.

On the ground, leave it here.

And there's an emergency landing after Helimed 99 springs a leak.

I can't see any fire or anything.

The Helimed team know if you're in a road accident the chances of recovery

depend on what vehicles are involved and if it's a lorry the odds are already stacked against you.

Dispatchers don't send a helicopter to every emergency,

but when a driver is trapped in a wrecked car there's no question.

It's a lorry and a car gone off the road.

I've spoken to the RRV on scene and there's someone trapped in a car

that they can't get to.

Today, Helimed 98 is heading north to a road just off the A1.

There's been numerous calls

come in for road accidents there,

some of which are stating a lorry, an oil tanker,

has left the road

and also there's a car overturned.

We've tried to get further information and the crews on scene are stating there are casualties.

One casualty is still trapped in a car upside down and they're unable to get access to them.

The potential hazards from road accidents are quite numerous anyway but if you've got a tanker

involved in that, then obviously any cargo that's in there,

the fire brigade will have to ascertain whether it's a risk to the rescuers and

whether we can get anywhere near the scene at this time.

The driver was lucky to survive when her car cartwheeled down the

road after a collision involving a heavy lorry.

Now she's trapped in the wreckage.

Her leg is badly injured and until she's freed

her life is in real danger from internal bleeding or fire.

She was still in her seatbelt when I got here.

She undid that herself because she was complaining she was hanging upside down

and went crunch on the floor and that made it even worse.

We've just got one female who's been trapped in the car for quite a while.

Fire brigade have managed to get access and

the crew are getting a bit closer.

It's difficult to find out exactly what injuries she's got.

She's got numerous lacerations.

She must have been thrown about quite a lot from the wreckage of the car.

Once we get her out we can have a better look and find out if she's got any life-threatening injuries.

The emergency services know there's no risk from the contents of the tanker at least.

It's a milk tanker from one of the local dairies. It's very local to here.

There's no chemicals on board and at the moment the milk

has not been wasted, it's being pumped away to another tanker.

Rescuing the driver isn't going to be straightforward.

-What's that hurting there, Jean?

-Yeah.

-Me, there?

Motorist Jean Trevelyan is trapped in the twisted interior of her estate car.

I can't breathe, can't breathe!

You can, sweetheart.

Moving her could worsen her condition.

-Aargh!

-Well done, Jean. Well done, well done.

-My leg, my leg!

It's OK. It's all right, it's OK.

That's it, well done.

Well done, Jean.

In this part of North Yorkshire most of the firefighters are

part-timers who respond to emergencies from their day jobs.

But they're trained to the same standards as full-time colleagues

and today their skills are being tested to the limit.

The vehicle's on its roof. It's a very tight situation inside the vehicle.

The crews have made access to the side of the vehicle

for the paramedics and the ambulance technicians and then reassured and offered first aid to the casualty.

But until she's released, diagnosing her injuries is little more than guesswork.

-The femur's gone. Lower leg's gone.

-All right.

-Are we all clear?

Jean is trapped by her ankle, but at last a fireman manages to release her.

-We need to go a bit further.

-Do you want to go a bit further?

-Hold your arms in for us, duck.

-There we go.

It's now clear Jean's injuries are serious.

She has a fractured arm and a badly broken leg.

Jean needs emergency surgery but there's a problem.

Her broken leg is bent.

If it's left as it is

she'll never fit in the cramped cabin of Helimed 98,

but straightening it will mean a complicated procedure

that will leave her in even more pain.

Coming up, the team begin to straighten Jean's leg, but it's not going to be easy for them or her.

To get your leg into the splint I need to put pressure on it and just pull it.

Jacqueline, the injured jockey, reaches hospital,

but she's still unconscious.

And the team are scrambled to a downed helicopter.

We're concerned about him with the nature of the accident obviously.

These guys make safety a top priority at work.

They wear helmets, harnesses and high-vis almost all of the time,

but they aren't alone in having hazardous jobs.

Building workers are especially vulnerable to accidents at work.

Addresses don't get more remote than some of the hamlets high in the North York Moors.

For most of the time the beauty of these dales makes up for the isolation.

But when someone's seriously hurt, speedy help can only come from the air.

At the Helimed base the team are on the case of a builder badly injured in remote Farndale.

Any further north and paramedic Pat would be touching the ceiling.

-That's it.

-So it's there.

The team know their patient will be enduring a long wait for help.

We're off to Farndale. A 19-year-old

has for whatever reason got his legs trapped underneath a dumper truck.

We believe he's got an open fracture,

which means the bone is sticking out through the leg,

and that's where we're going to go and assist.

19-year-old builder's labourer Aaron Jeffries was driving a dumper truck when it overturned.

His leg is trapped and badly broken.

He was working on the most remote house in the dale when the accident happened.

We believe he's got a compounded broken leg. The bone is broken and it's broken through the skin.

Part-time firefighters from the nearby market town 14 miles away

have done a good job to beat Helimed 99 on its 20 minute flight.

Hello.

We haven't even got him out yet.

This is Aaron, 19.

This dumper's come over on him.

Aaron's in a bad way.

He's in serious pain.

But his thigh bone is shattered and paramedic Sammy knows this is a potentially fatal injury.

Patients can bleed to death internally after accidents like this.

He's got a nasty open femur. Quite a lot of blood trapped in there, bleeding quite badly,

so we had a litre of fluid up, we've given him some pain relief.

Aaron, you're going to feel the weight coming off of your leg

and then we're going to slide the board underneath you.

-Right.

-Stay still, stay still.

Guys, are you ready? Who am I talking to?

Firefighters have bought an airbag which will slowly ease the truck off the teenager's leg.

There, nice and steady.

That's it. You're just going to feel your ankle moving a little bit.

That's it, mate, that's it. It's just coming out of the mud.

We're just trying to get this off.

-Get it off me, take it off.

-Aaron...

-Take it off.

-It'll come off.

-It'll come off.

Yeah, that's it, Aaron.

We're now ready to move.

After half-an-hour pinned to the ground in freezing temperatures Aaron is free at last.

My leg just clicked again.

On your call, Sammy.

Injuries involving builders are among the most common industrial

accidents and this one is bound to result in an inquiry by the police and the Health and Safety Executive.

One, two, three.

For now all Aaron's shocked colleagues are concerned about is their injured workmate.

He needs hospital treatment urgently,

but despite the remoteness of the dale it won't be long thanks to Helimed 99.

We are not too far from hospital here.

Maybe about seven minutes for us to James Cook,

but it's a very remote area to go by road.

You must be looking 25-30 minutes

at least over the moors so it's a good air ambulance job for us, this one.

Sammy and Pat know how to keep patients calm, but under the cheerful chat, they're worried.

I want this arm, mate.

Aaron's blood pressure is dropping. It could be a sign of internal bleeding.

Not a very nice fractured femur with the displacement.

Because we are unable to put traction on it cos of possible pelvis,

it's still an irregular shape and it doesn't look very nice.

So, for him, pain management is sorted, but visually, it's still quite disconcerting for him.

Farndale is famous for its daffodils and they're just coming into bloom.

Pilot Steve is more concerned about an invisible feature of the dale.

Valleys like this are notorious for turbulence and strong downdrops.

'Helimed 99, good morning.

'No traffic to affect you. Reply on approaching James Cook.'

Clear, direct. Will go ahead.

Steve is making sure he has enough height to stay safe.

But, in the back, Pat has his own concerns.

Monitoring Aaron's falling blood pressure and pain level is one of them.

As he's rolled and trapped his leg,

he's broke his upper femur.

He's very badly deformed,

which can cause excessive amounts of bleeding into the femur.

So we are keeping an eye on his obs and his blood pressure and giving him

fluids and he's had a lot of pain relief to help with the pain.

What I suspect at the moment is every time he gets a jolt,

the bones are rubbing together, which is causing the pain.

We have to try and ease that pain while moving him in and out of the aircraft.

Middlesbrough's James Cook hospital is named after the famous explorer,

but today's flight doesn't need a great feat of navigation.

As soon as Helimed 99 clears the hills at the end of the valley, Teesside is right in front of it.

Helimed 99 approaching James Cook.

A medical team is already waiting inside A&E for Aaron's arrival.

How is the pain at the moment?

-What's score would you put it at now out of one to ten?

-It's all right.

One being no pain, ten being...

-About five or six.

-About five or six. OK, Aaron.

They know injuries like this can be very serious.

But everything, including his age, is on Aaron's side.

Within days of having his leg reset, he was back home with a new respect for safety at work.

Coming up, the motorist involved in a head-on smash with a milk tanker is finally airborne.

Blood pressure at the moment is round about the minimum we would want it to be.

And the team are too late to save a trainee pilot after a flying lesson goes tragically wrong.

This looks pretty terminal. Just one casualty.

Now, let's get back to the racetrack where a top female jockey

is still unconscious after a 40 mile an hour fall.

Top amateur jockey, Jacqueline Coward, was knocked unconscious

since she fell from her horse on a jump at Catterick races.

COMMENTATOR: Ras Laffan has fallen.

The favourite is on the floor.

She hit the ground at 40 miles an hour and, without a description of her symptoms,

the medical team don't know if she's injured her neck or spine,

or even suffered brain damage.

The course doctor and medics have been with Jacqueline since her fall.

They are used to jockeys who have fallen, but most recover consciousness within minutes.

20 minutes ago, Jacqueline was riding the favourite.

Now a trauma team is awaiting her arrival at a hospital in Middlesbrough.

Hello.

Her name's Jackie.

The method of landing was with her head tucked underneath her.

She's tucked in, yes.

Jockeys have a fatalistic attitude to injury.

And Jacqueline would understand the track's keenness to get on with the racing.

Let me know about two or three minutes before you take off,

-cos they want to saddle the horses for the next race.

-Yeah.

-That would be great.

-OK.

Part of a paramedic's job is cutting through the confusion

in a dazed patient's mind, encouraging them to come round.

It's not working.

Jackie, hello, hi. We are from the air ambulance, all right?

We will be going off shortly.

She fleetingly opens her eyes but she's clearly not taking in his words.

The patient is loaded and stable and the crew expect to be taking off

within the next three to five minutes.

At least Steve doesn't have much to worry about.

The horses are all down the other end so there's no problem there.

They stopped the race until we'd finished

so it's been easy so far.

Jacqueline's flight to James Cook hospital will take less than 15 minutes.

Racegoers will be kept up-to-date with her condition through the track's PA system.

The doctor described that she'd come off and tucked under.

They were on the scene within 30 seconds.

Her neck was tucked under and she has had a fit, post the event.

She's had some type of head trauma going on there.

This specialist area up at James Cook...

The doctor spoke to James Cook A&E and they know that she's coming.

She responded to me flicking her mask, but you can see in her eyes that she's

not with us very well at all.

But Lee's priority is monitoring Jacqueline's condition.

If he can get her to come round, diagnosing any injuries will be much easier.

But she remains deeply unconscious.

Even bright light fails to rouse her.

I'm just checking her pupils. They are a bit sluggish.

Two minutes, Lee.

OK, thanks.

Doctors at the James Cook hospital in Middlesbrough are used to seeing jockeys who have taken a tumble.

Nearby North Yorkshire is home to some of the UK's top trainers.

Jacqueline knew she was a member of one of sport's riskiest professions

but she probably didn't count on ending today's race like this.

We're just going to go down to A&E with the girl now.

I'll just handover to the doctor and let him look after her from there.

The next hour will be critical as doctors scan her unconscious body for other injuries.

Coming up, back on the gallops, Jacqueline's colleagues wait for news from the hospital.

And flying paramedic Lee is scrambled to an air crash too close to home for comfort.

It could be one of the machines I've flown recently.

Remember the motorist injured in a collision with a milk tanker?

The Helimed team won't forget this case in a hurry because it's about to get a lot more complicated.

On a country road in North Yorkshire,

emergency services have spent the last half hour

freeing motorist Jean Trevelyan from her wrecked car.

She was trapped after a collision with a milk tanker

that blocked the road near the market town of Boroughbridge.

Now she's free, but there's a problem.

Her badly broken leg is bent and paramedics Pete Vallance and Paul Bradbury

must straighten it so they can slide her into Helimed 98's cramped cabin.

They are using a traction splint.

It will put the shattered bones in Jean's leg back in line.

Yes, cheers. Jean?

-Yes.

-What we're going to do is we're going to give you something to ease the pain.

You've broken your leg so we are going to need to straighten it.

I'm not going to say it's going to be pain-free,

-but it will be better for you once we can get it into the position it should be in.

-OK.

She's already been given pain relief, but this will still be an agonising process.

Just nice and steady. You might feel a few twinges.

It's OK. Yeah?

If you want to scream, you scream. It doesn't matter.

To get your leg into this splint, I need to put pressure on it and just pull it.

You'll get that sensation of it being pulled. All right?

You keep talking to me, Jeanie, all right?

The impact shortened her leg by three inches.

Without pain relief, Jean would be in agony, but she's getting by by gritting her teeth.

But it's not over yet. To make sure a broken bone is not

closing off veins or arteries, they need to stretch Jean's leg too.

Her bone is actually protruding from her leg.

She's got no pulse below it, so what we've had to do is

put traction on the leg in order to maintain the blood supply to her foot

which we've managed to do now.

And, all being well, they are just moving her now

so we'll be off to the hospital.

A broken right leg is among the most common injuries

following a serious road crash.

A driver's right foot is normally on the brake pedal

and when an impact comes, it suddenly takes the full

weight of the body, multiplied many times over as car and motorist stop in the space of a few feet.

How bad's your pain at the moment still?

-Eight.

-Eight, OK.

I'll give you some oxygen here.

Ten of morphine.

Jean was driving from her home in Northumberland to Leeds to visit

her son, who is recovering after hospital treatment.

Now, she too needs a doctor.

Your blood pressure is a bit on the low side, which is

understandable, bearing in mind what you've just been through. OK.

My right ankle hurts.

Yeah, it will do.

Jean, in flight, you're not going to be able to hear much.

-All right.

-All right, it's going to be noisy.

It's going to be about 12 minutes and we'll be back up your neck of the woods. All right?

Jean may be badly hurt, but at least she has a sense of humour when it comes to the thought of NHS cuisine.

-Any in-flight meals?

-We'll serve you one later.

Caviar and chips.

Broken bones can lead to internal bleeding and Peter has noticed some worrying signs.

Her blood pressure at the moment is around about the minimum

we would want it to be.

We've set some fluids up to try and compensate for that,

but it may indicate that she has some bleeding

that's hidden from us, that's causing her blood pressure to drop.

Jean's on her way to the trauma unit at the James Cook hospital in Middlesbrough.

Doctors there are experts at treating car-crash injuries.

There's really only one winner when you come up against a car.

And it's not the car.

The fact that Jean is still with us is a bonus.

Within minutes of her arrival, Jean is under the care of a surgeon.

She spent several months in a wheelchair but eventually she got back on her feet

and her son ended up visiting her hospital bedside rather than the other way around.

Coming up, the jockey injured on live TV finally gets to see her spectacular accident.

I watched it and thought, "Silly horse, why didn't it land?"

A helicopter has become a status symbol for the successful businessman.

Somewhere after the yacht, and just before the corporate jet.

But, no matter how good the pilot, or how well maintained the chopper,

flying them will never be completely risk-free.

Flying in helicopters is a dangerous business,

but every day the Helimed team put their own lives on the line to help their patients.

The pilots are some of the most experienced and skilled around.

And the paramedics must complete an intensive training course,

because if something goes wrong up here, it's a long way down.

Helicopters are not inherently dangerous machines.

If they were, we would not be allowed to fly them.

But they are very unforgiving. If something goes wrong, you don't have a lot time to react.

There's a lot of rotating machinery

which has a lot of inertia and we spent a lot of time

quite close to the ground so if anything goes wrong,

it goes wrong quickly and you don't have much time to recover from that.

The crew don't need a reminder of the dangers they face, but today they are going to get one.

A frantic 999 call has come in saying a helicopter's crashed on the

outskirts of Doncaster in South Yorkshire.

Our vehicle is en route,

but no-one is on the scene as yet.

Apparently a witness has actually called in

and can actually see the aircraft

from where they are on the M18.

So we are just going to go to see what

we can see and hopefully direct the land crews to where we are.

As far as injuries are concerned, number of persons,

what type of crash it's been, we are not aware of, as yet.

Despite advances in aircraft safety, few people survive the huge impact involved in an air crash.

In the UK, there were over 20 accidents like this one last year.

'We've got two patients on the ground seriously injured. Over.'

-Would it be worth an early call to Sandtoft to see if they know the location?

-It might be.

Paramedic Lee Davison often swaps his syringe for a joystick.

He's a qualified commercial helicopter pilot, but this job is a little too close to home.

Only a few weeks ago, he was flying the same helicopter that crashed.

Yeah, I've recently done a lot of flying out of Sandtoft

for my commercial helicopter pilot's qualification.

I did all my training there just before Christmas.

So it could well be one of the machines I have flown very recently.

I will be interested myself to see what's happened.

This could be a major incident and Helimed 98 is not the only chopper racing towards the scene.

The Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance Helimed 29

is also heading for the crash site, a small airfield called Sandtoft.

29 Alpha. We're four minutes to the south of Sandtoft,

if you're coming to the same incident.

There is a Robinson R22 in the overhead as well.

Roger, thanks, mate.

Two and a half miles northwest of Sandtoft? Confirm.

See you down there.

The wreckage of the small Robinson R22 helicopter confirms everyone's worst fears.

'Just wondering how far you are from Sandtoft. It looks pretty terminal.

'Just one casualty.'

Trainee pilot Kim Carter had just dropped off his instructor

and was completing a solo training run when the accident happened.

The father of three was killed instantly.

It was a type of aircraft that I trained in and did 500 hours'

flying in when I was working towards my commercial licence.

So it's always a little bit... It brings you up a little bit to see what can happen to people.

Luckily, it didn't happen to me.

I survived and obviously got more experience, and hopefully that'll keep me out of trouble in the future.

But not everybody is that lucky, unfortunately.

The Helimed team work their aircraft hard.

Today, the chopper's barely out of the hangar and they're off to a road accident.

Helimed 99 cost £3 million and comes equipped with the latest technology.

But unfortunately for paramedic Lee Davison and doctor Andy Pountney, that doesn't include heated windows.

See anything?

OK, just coming back down again. We're misting up on the front.

That's not a good thing to do when there's

snow about. Open your vents up, we're breathing too heavy.

-Can you see the aircraft?

-Got it, thank you.

Nothing that flies is foolproof, and this morning, the captain

is about to find that out.

On the control panel, a warning light is flashing.

Helimed 98. Aborting our take-off. We're coming in to land.

We've got a low in the transmission.

Helimed 98 would now like to return back to 125 Central.

The gearbox oil pressure is low.

It's probably a false alarm, but Ian hasn't survived 30 years

in the pilot's seat by not taking warnings seriously.

Sorry, guys, I can't let it flash twice.

It's transmission low pressure.

What was the numbers that flashed up then, did you see it?

-53.

-OK, going on the ground.

Leave it here.

Helimed 99 isn't going any further than the airport taxiway.

And the tell-tale stream of oil leaking from the engines

is proof that Ian's decision to abandon the flight was a smart move.

Shall we go out that door?

Can't see any fire or anything.

We've had to put down on the taxiway.

We were just going to take off on a job and we've had a red caution light on in the front here which

Ian, the pilot, spotted, and Tony.

We've had to just turn around, but we were losing oil pressure in the transmission.

So we've had to just put on the ground on the taxiway here.

If you go around the other side, there's all oil down the side of the aircraft. We'll have a look.

This is the vital lubrication that keeps the chopper's rotors turning.

An oil line has broken and Helimed 99's life blood is draining away.

I tell you, I'm glad we weren't 2,000 feet up.

Continuing to fly could have meant an in-flight emergency over the suburbs of Leeds.

You're always disappointed if you go off to a job and there's patients

that are waiting for us and we can't get there.

But safety has to come first, and it's a good job it was winter so we were waiting for it to demist

and gave a chance for this to become apparent.

I'm glad we weren't 2,000 feet up and a long way from home.

Repairs will take a few hours' work, but Ian's quick thinking has saved them tens of thousands of pounds.

That's how much a new gearbox would have cost.

The other good news is that the emergency hasn't delayed the patient's treatment.

The responder called up on the radio and said that the patient

wasn't in a life threatening at that moment

and that she was still trapped in an awkward position, but her ankle would suffice.

So we can stand the helicopter down. No harm done.

Playing it safe is every professional pilot's rule,

but the skies are now busy with a new breed of aviator - the enthusiastic amateur.

They're taking up flying in increasing numbers

thanks to a new generation of recreational helicopters.

The biggest problem early on is that people get over-confident.

When they get to about 100 hours or so they think they have actually learnt how to master the helicopter.

That's not the case. It's almost a living thing. You can't take your hands off the controls for a minute

because it just goes where it wants.

You've got to be concentrating 100 per cent all the time.

A lot of accidents in the past are with people who have just got their licence and are taking

their family and friends out for flights and they just overcooked it and were too blase about it all.

It's a dangerous machine if not treated properly.

A quarter of a million quid and it's yours.

Lots of people dream of having their own helicopter just like this.

But the downside is if something goes wrong, it can be very expensive and painful.

When the sun shines, private pilots head out in their hundreds.

But in the Pennines, a helicopter flight has come to a sudden and very painful end.

Hello, have you just made an emergency call for a reported helicopter crash?

The team are always quick to set off.

But when it's a fellow aviator in trouble, there's an added pressure.

It must feel very strange, especially when you're flying in a helicopter

and you're going to one that has just crashed, you're thinking,

"Are we going to be all right?"

But they probably aren't thinking that, they're probably concentrating on what they're going to.

More information is being sent to the crew all the time,

and eyewitness accounts are not encouraging.

We've talked to a lady

that witnessed the incident and she said she saw a helicopter

come down on the moor,

but we don't know if she saw any flames or smoke.

She witnessed a helicopter, she believes, crash land and she hasn't seen anybody get out of it.

We're going to take a look and see what's going on there.

The helicopter that has crashed has four seats, and with the possibility

of passengers being injured as well as the pilot, another air ambulance has also been scrambled.

Helimed 98, I'm going to stand you down.

I'm leaving Helimed 99 running, they're almost on scene and only one helicopter is required.

One patient is involved.

We'll stand down there.

They're saying that there's one casualty.

One casualty, I heard that.

The crew have already flown over a lorry fire on the M62.

But at the scene, emergency crews have arrived in force.

We've got a situation at the moment. Obviously, we won't know the reasons as to why the helicopter has crashed

until the the investigation has been completed.

It's down here somewhere.

That might be the hotel she was on about.

Yeah, I've got emergency services on scene. Bang on the nose.

In the field there, yeah.

Pilot Steve Cobb approaches the area with extra care.

He doesn't know how or why the other helicopter has crashed and nobody on

board wants to end up in the same situation as the injured pilot.

Hello, sir.

No loss of consciousness on impact.

He's basically mid-shaft right tib and fib.

He can mobilise his toes. Got sensation.

He's been lucky. Few people survive after crashing a helicopter.

But he's not out of danger.

He's complaining of a severely broken right leg, no other injuries that we can

find at the moment, but we're a bit concerned about him with the nature of the accident.

The pilot's injury could be serious.

Patients can bleed to death internally from broken legs.

Soon he'll be airborne again, this time for a short flight to hospital in nearby Manchester.

All the team know that flying makes their job more dangerous.

In the last year, three people have died in chopper crashes in Yorkshire alone.

But they also know that they're in safe hands.

Steve Cobb has flown 5,000 hours without a single accident.

He's determined to keep it that way.

The pilot who crashed was kept in hospital for a considerable time with injuries to his leg and back.

But he was lucky. His aircraft was beyond repair.

If it was an engine failure or some mechanical failure,

the position he was in wasn't good for a successful landing.

It was on a hillside, it wasn't flat at all.

But he actually seemed to do quite well.

I wondered what the man thought -

He's just crashed a helicopter then he's getting into another helicopter to take him to hospital.

We have one of the latest, up to date, modern helicopters

flown by some of the best pilots in the country.

I have every confidence in this helicopter and our pilots.

I'm pleased to say that the injured pilot has recovered.

Now, in North Yorkshire's racing country,

top jockey Jacqueline Coward's family are waiting for news.

COMMENTATOR: ..The Iron Giant, who is followed by Feeling Peckish...

Racing's back under way at Catterick,

after an up-and-coming young jockey was thrown from her horse.

Jacqueline Coward hasn't regained consciousness, and Helimed 99

have rushed her to the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

It's only when she wakes up that doctors will be able to find out just how serious her injuries are

and Jacqueline will discover if she'll ever ride again.

Horseracing is a way of life in this part of North Yorkshire.

And at Jacqueline's family farm near York, work starts at the crack of dawn.

The horses need exercising, washing and grooming.

But there's one member of the team missing. Jacqueline was unconscious for over an hour.

But despite hitting the ground at 40 mph, she's escaped any serious neck or spinal injuries.

However, six weeks later, a blossoming racing career is still on hold.

Supposedly I can't ride for

three to six to nine months. It just depends.

Every day you've got to take at a time. Apparently your body tells you.

People just keep saying, "Don't rush things,

don't rush things." I have these like major ups and downs.

It's very strange, very weird. Good days and bad days.

Before the race I'd had a really good weekend.

I'd ridden three winners and I'd ridden a winner in Ireland so I was quite chilled out, thinking,

"Oh, well, hopefully I'm on the favourite and I'm going to win

"and who cares if I don't because I've been winning lately."

And then that just happened.

Few people have the chance to see how their accident happened.

Jacqueline suffered severe concussion and can't remember anything about the race.

But the TV cameras caught every moment of her unfortunate fall.

I've only just watched it once, coming back from hospital,

so it's difficult to remember because my memory hasn't been great.

But it was fine, I just watched it and thought, "Silly horse. Why didn't it land?"

I just thought nothing of it.

It's weird because I just know nothing about it.

So when people are like, "Are you all right?"

I'm like, "Yeah, absolutely fine."

Then you kind of look at the replay and think, "That's why they were worried."

Injuries are part and parcel of being a jockey,

and Jacqueline accepts the risks every time she saddles up.

But there's nothing else she'd rather do.

It's like addiction. You can't help it.

Your horses are like your children.

I said to Mum, I said, "What is it about them?

"Why is it that whatever happens to them you always go back?"

She says it's because, "at your age, they're like your children. They're so precious to you."

I'll definitely go back. Of course I will. Definitely.

Without a doubt, I'll be back. I might not be back very soon, but I'll be back at some point in my life.

Jacqueline has ridden 50 winners and can't wait to add to her tally.

But she also knows that if she's concussed again, she may lose her licence to ride.

No wonder she's taking her time before joining her friends on the gallops.

When Helicopter Heroes comes back, 10 year old Lucas has just been

hurled 20 feet over a wall after a road accident.

He's complaining of a pain in his head. No neck pain, no back pain.

Now the team fear he may have a serious head injury.

It's Christmas, but there's no rest for paramedic Darren on a 999 dash to the top of the Pennines.

A lot of pain in his back. He's saying it hurts to breathe.

There's a freak accident down on the farm.

And the team ruffle a few feathers touching down on a village green.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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