Kent Air Ambulance

The Kent Air Ambulance is an organisation providing emergency medical services through the provision of a helicopter air ambulance covering the county of Kent in the South East of England, United Kingdom. The helicopter is funded by the Kent Air Ambulance Trust (under the operating name of the Kent Air Ambulance Fund), which is a registered charity, raising money from public and private donations in excess of £4m every year between Kent, Sussex and Surrey.

The service is operated by the Kent Air Ambulance Trust, a registered charity established in 1989. The trust was founded by Kate Chivers (in whose honour the current helicopter is named), and was originally called the South East Thames Air Ambulance. Initially operated on a part-time basis, the air ambulance became a seven-day service in January 2000 and shortly afterwards moved from its original Rochester Airport base to its current base at Marden near Maidstone.

It operates one McDonnell-Douglas MD-902 Explorer helicopter (registration G-KAAT) from its headquarters in Marden. This location, combined with a its high cruise speed, quoted by Macdonnell Douglas as in excess of 150 mph, enables the crew to reach almost all of the county within 15 minutes of takeoff (the exception being the farther reaches of Thanet which may take up to 20 minutes to reach).

In March 2008 it was announced that the trust would be collaborating with Sussex Police to provide a night time rescue service utilising the Sussex police helicopter, Hotel 900, which is equipped to fly at night. Prior to this, the service was restricted to daylight operation only.

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