Meet London’s first all-female air ambulance crew

For the first time in the charity’s history, the crew is made up of all women

An all-female crew at London’s Air Ambulance has taken to the skies for the first time in the charity’s history.

The team onboard HeliMed 27 on Thursday included two female pilots alongside women working across the emergency medical crew, in what the charity hopes will encourage more girls and young women into aviation and emergency medicine careers.

Captain Adele Dobler said the role combined “your passion of flying with the opportunity to help somebody on the worst day of their life”.

“So yeah, there’s not many more things in life that are more rewarding,” she said.

First officer Anne-Marie Goodwill described it as the “best job in the world”.

“We fly helicopters and we help people,” she said. “I mean, what more is there for life?”

Dobler said seeing another woman flying a helicopter had inspired her own career.

“One day I met a female pilot, chance encounter,” she said.

“I didn’t get her name. I wish I did because this person literally changed my life.

“And I couldn’t stop thinking about it after that.”

She said representation remained important because many people still had “a typical image of what a pilot looks like”.

“And I don’t look like that,” she added.

Dr Charlotte Ashworth said visibility was important for younger generations.

“We should see this as the norm and we should see this to show that doors are open for women,” she said.

“I have a six-year-old daughter, Sienna, who knows that mummy’s a doctor in the helicopter and she tells all of her friends at school that that’s what she wants to do when she grows up.

Goodwill said she retrained as a pilot later in life after previously working as a chartered accountant.

“I got made redundant 10 years ago. I was 42, retrained and now I do this,” she said.

“It’s ridiculous. Never crossed my mind to learn to fly before.”

Despite being “scared of heights” and suffering from travel sickness, she said flying helicopters had become a passion.

“Helicopters are amazing and it’s the best job in the world,” she said.

Ashworth said London’s Air Ambulance continued to develop specialist treatments for patients across the capital.

“We’ve now got the ECMO team, the medical cardiac arrest for patients in London, which we have nowhere else in the country,” she said.

“It’s constantly evolving so that our patients get the best possible care.”

The charity said it hoped the milestone shift would help challenge perceptions about who works in aviation and frontline emergency medicine.