Fog forces helicopter to land on the Avenue

Thursday 09 March 2017

With the 80th anniversary of the Airport this weekend, you might be forgiven for thinking back to the time when aircraft used to land on the beach at West Park.

This lunchtime the south coast of Jersey became an airstrip once again, when doctors needed to fly a patient to Southampton Hospital for urgent treatment.

With fog at the airport, they rolled back the clock, and opted to use Victoria Avenue instead as a heli-pad. 

Bemused drivers looked on as the western end of the Avenue was closed between the St Aubin's Inner Road junction and La Rue de Galet for an hour, while the patient was transferred from an ambulance, and then into the waiting helicopter.

A Heath Department spokesman said:

"Because of the weather conditions that have disrupted flights to/from Jersey Airport today, a medical evacuation by helicopter took place earlier this afternoon. This involved a patient being transferred to Southampton General Hospital. The patient was in a stable condition, however after clinical review this morning it was ruled that the transfer needed to happen today. The patient was delivered to Victoria Avenue by ambulance and the helicopter took off at 1.15pm."

In a Facebook post, the police asked members of the public to avoid the area, adding that the landing of the helicopter had nothing to do with the major incident exercise that's been going on this week.

The Avenue was reopened again early this afternoon.