The UK's Great North Air Ambulance (GNAAS) is well on target to achieve its goal of operating three AS365 N2s - one previously owned by Manchester United footballer Michael Owen - by the spring of 2011.

Grahame Pickering, ceo, says a fund raising campaign has paid for the first and raised a deposit for the second. "The charity believes that buying its own aircraft, rather than leasing as it has done in the past, will be more cost-effective in the long term."