Doctors, dispatchers, pilots and paramedics from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance (HIOWAA) critical care teams have responded to 14,000 missions by helicopter since the first flight in 2007. 

Combined with its emergency response vehicle deployments, the service has now responded to more than 21,000 emergencies.

Flight number 14,000 came when the team were deployed to an incident in Milford on Sea on Tuesday (June 10). 

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The service’s helicopter was despatched from Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, after completing an earlier mission. A patient was stabilised at the scene then transferred to hospital by road ambulance with the doctor-paramedic team continuing to provide life-saving care with ambulance staff colleagues from South Central Ambulance Service. 

One of the 14,000 call outs was to 47-year-old Matt Poole, who was was involved in a motorbike road traffic collision on the A339 north of Basingstoke in 2022.  

Matt suffered a catalogue of breaks, dislocations and other serious injuries, from his shoulders to his toes, when he was thrown 30 metres from his bike. 

(Image: Family collection) Due to Matt’s rural location, the team flew him to the region’s Major Trauma Unit, University Hospital Southampton. 

He said: "I was a broken mess in a field. Because of the work they did I’m up, I’m walking and I’m better. I’m alive. To everyone who supports this service: I want to thank you. The service you keep going is life-saving. I am proof of that."

HIOWAA Paramedic Clinical Lead, Nick Gray, who was on flight number 14,000, said: "Our sincere thanks to everyone who supports this charity. Your kindness and passion ensures my colleagues and I are ready to provide emergency critical care to those who need it.  

"Many of our patients and their friends and families are only together now because of the exceptional generosity of the people who have supported us since our first flight in 2007."

The charity relies entirely on donations from the public to ensure it can bring its life-saving care to the most seriously ill and injured patients across the region and has already responded to more than 1,000 emergencies in 2025.  

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is currently raising funds towards its airbase relocation appeal, Operation Airbase.

Visit www.hiowaa.org/appeal