Man airlifted in Bognor car park rescue drama

The presence of the helicopter on the western section of the Hothamton car park was the first time the site had been used as an emergency helipad.

The helicopter was called into action after a man fell from the top of the Fitzleet multi-storey car park in nearby Bedford Street.

It was unclear initially if he had jumped or been pushed. He was flown to the Royal London Hospital.

Onlooker Mark Whitlock, 48, a psychiatric nurse of Sunningdale Gardens, North Bersted, said: "It's incredible to see a helicopter in the car park.

"I've lived in Bognor for 39 years and I've never seen anything like this before.

"I was absolutely gobsmacked to see the helicopter land. I had just dropped my daughter off at Bishop Tufnell School in Felpham and was on the bus into the town centre for a breakfast at McDonald's when I saw the helicopter.

"I thought it was the police helicopter at first. Then, as it got closer, I realised it was going to land."

The alarm about the injured man, who had suspected head injuries, was raised around 8.15am on Friday, March 13. Police and paramedics were soon at the scene and sealed off part of Bedford Street.

The decision was made by the ambulance service to call in the air ambulance. It took pilot Peter Driver 15 minutes to fly two doctors and a paramedic from their base at Dunsford Airfield near Godalming in Surrey at speeds of up to 150mph.

Mr Driver said: "It's always a challenge landing the helicopter and it's a case of expecting the unexpected.

"My first priority is to look for a safe area to land, where people are not running around on the ground and then to get the crew as close to the scene of the incident as possible.

"The car park was just right. All I need is a space which is a minimum of two rotor diameters to land in."

He has flown the helicopter, an MD902 Explorer, for the past two years of his 18 years as a pilot. "The idea of the air ambulance is to take the hospital to the patient rather than to put them in an ambulance and take them to a hospital," he added.

He landed in the car park at 9.05am. His arrival among two cars and a van in that section of the car park immediately attracted about 30 onlookers.

It was 9.43am when police officers began to close the section of Queensway closest to the car park ready for take-off.

A police car and ambulance, containing the patient, travelled from Bedford Street to the car park, through Crescent Road, at 9.50pm.

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