Staff, fundraisers and previous patients enjoyed a fly-past by a Spitfire when they gathered to celebrate the 18th birthday of Shropshire’s Midland Air Ambulance.

The service had just a single helicopter ferrying patients when it was launched in 1991 but now it has expanded to cover three bases.

The anniversary event was held at Hagley Hall, near Stourbridge, where the five-day a week service based at Halfpenny Green Airport, near Wolverhampton, originally launched.

It later moved to the RAF Cosford base in Shropshire and today there are three bases operating seven days per week – one in Cosford, one in Strensham, Worcestershire, and one at Tatenhill airport in Burton upon Trent, Staff-ordshire.

Costing £5.6 million per year to run – or the equivalent of £25 per minute every time it takes off – the service is a charity and receives no Government funding.

Instead the 3,500 incidents attended by the crews each year are reliant completely on the generosity of the public and dedicated fundraisers.

To mark the “coming of age” birthday occasion, staff, fundraisers and even previous patients were invited back to Hagley Hall where they watched all three helicopters land. A police helicopter also made the journey and there was a fly-past by a Spitfire plane.

Bob Seaward, the then director of operations, who fought to get the service started, said: “The trial cost around £50,000 and we had to raise the money ourselves.”

Mr Seaward, who retired from the ambulance service after 43 years in 2006, said: “At first it was a case of my wife selling teddy bears at table-top sales and things like that.”

The three helicopters are on duty on a shift basis between 7am and 9pm daily.

Air operations manager Ian Clayton has been working for the air ambulance for the past nine years, and has been in charge of the fleet for the past five years.

He said: “Around 50 per cent of the incidents we get called to are road collisions.

“The average speed of a road ambulance is still only 30mph where as we can reach speeds of 150 miles per hour.”

By Lisa Rowley