THE Wiltshire Air Ambulance has been left in the lurch by a Civil Aviation Authority delay in issuing an Air Operating Certificate following tests on its helicopter.

The charity's Bell 429 air ambulance passed the aviation authority's (CAA) inspection in the first week of August.

By now, the air ambulance (WAA) hoped to have its helicopter back in the air for emergency medical services work.

Following a CAA assurance that the AOC would be issued soon, the charity cancelled a contingency arrangement with Specialist Aviation Services for the use of a back up MD902 helicopter.

But it has been left waiting for the AOC to come through and a spokeswoman says they are "extremely frustrated" by the delay.

WAA's Jill Crooks said: "We are waiting for the CAA to issue the Air Operator Certificate for our Bell 429 helicopter in order for this to return to HEMS work.

"We took the decision to let the MD 902 go at the start of August given the impending inspection of our flight operations by the CAA which was successful and were told the issuance of our own Air Operator Certificate would be imminent.

"In addition the owners of the MD 902 wanted it for another contract and we had already spent £314,000 on the contingency arrangement.

"Bearing in mind that the flight operations inspections were successfully completed on August 16 and we expected our AOC in the ensuing days, this was clearly a sensible decision. However, since that date we have been left waiting for the certificate.

"We are of course extremely frustrated with this situation but continue to respond to medical incidents in our Rapid Response Vehicles (cars).

The WAA’s helicopter was grounded on January 4 after Heli Charter, the company which held WAA’s flying certificate ceased trading. It had previously been grounded due to technical problems which were noted on January 2.

The charity said pilots and paramedics are now training on the Bell 429 helicopter day and night in preparation for obtaining their own AOC.

But they are not yet allowed to use the air ambulance for a return to Helicopter Emergency Medical Service work until the AOC is received.

Mrs Crooks said: “The process to secure our own AOC is ongoing. The AOC will allow our Bell 429 helicopter to return to HEMS work.

“We have been successfully inspected by the CAA and are now awaiting the issue of the certificate.

“In preparation for securing our AOC our pilots and paramedics are training on our helicopter, which includes flying day and night.

“We remain operational providing critical care in Wiltshire and surrounding counties up to 19 hours a day.

“We are not using a helicopter for HEMS work but our paramedics are using two Rapid Response Vehicles (cars) to attend emergencies.

"These vehicles are equipped with the same specialist medical equipment that is on our helicopter.

“We have reciprocal arrangements with neighbouring air ambulances to respond to emergency incidents.”

The CAA has been approached for comments.