Press Release
Issued by .
November 22, 2010
The private charter booking for Liverpool based AD Aviation's twin jet, 6 seater, Cessna Citation Eagle II, registration G-VUEM - on Friday 19th November 2010 was by all accounts a normal flight.
The aircraft, affectionately nick named "Echo-Mike", and it's two pilots, left Belfast on a critical mission to carry a donated liver to Birmingham, to save the life of it's recipient later that day. The transport of donor organs is a little known side of private aviation, which is only possible due to the immediacy of availability of private charter jets like those of AD Aviation.
Everything was going to plan, until the aircraft encountered rapidly deteriorating weather conditions on it's approach into Birmingham. The aircraft made contact with an ILS antenna at the perimeter of the airport, and then Echo-Mike hit the ground and a fire ensued.
The two pilots miraculously survived the crash bringing the aircraft to rest in one piece. Battling the pain of serious injury, they kept the flames at abeyance until the Emergency Services arrived. The Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA), fighting with the poor weather conditions, airlifted the second, more severely injured pilot away from the scene, to be treated in a local hospital.
The second miracle of the day unfolded as it was discovered that the transplant organ, rescued from the aircraft due to the quick thinking of the Emergency Teams, seemed to be intact. It was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for assessment prior to being successfully transplanted to it's recipient that night.
A hospital spokeswoman said the donor recipient was stable after the surgery and added: 'The transplant team would like to thank the pilot of the light aircraft and his colleague for their bravery. Our thoughts are with the individuals and their families. The team would also like to thank the quick-thinking of the fire and rescue teams at the scene who saved the organ.'
AD Aviation's primary concern has been with the pilots and their families, who are doing well and on the road to recovery - in fact one pilot has been discharged from hospital already.
The Directors of the AD Group, of which AD Aviation is a part, would like to thank the Chief Pilot and his Operations team, for their quick thinking, professionalism and support of the pilots and their families immediately after the incident.
The only casualty of this extraordinary chain of events was actually the aircraft which felt like part of the family - Echo-Mike - although lost forever, will go down in history having successfully fulfilled it's last critical mission to save a life.
AD Aviation has been operating a private air charter business for over 12 years and has an exemplary safety record. This is the first incident in which any of our aircraft has been involved. We will be cooperating fully with the AAIB in any investigation.
We would like to thank our clients and partners for their kind words and support at this time and for AD Aviation, it's now business as usual.
