More than 50 new sites for landing the lifesaving air ambulances have already been established with the potential for 300 sites across the nation being provided by member clubs of the Welsh Rugby Union.
The Wales 2013 RBS 6 Nations rugby squad helped launch the initiative at WRU headquarters last week and WAA clinical and operations manager Jason Williams says he has been overwhelmed by the response so far.
“We are extremely pleased and encouraged by the amount of clubs who have signed up to the scheme so far, already the new sites we are establishing will make a real difference to the lifesaving work of the Wales Air Ambulance service,” said Mr Williams.
“It is vitally important for our pilots to have a network of sites across Wales, which will have been fully surveyed for use and with every new club which comes on board we will be further enhancing that network.
“We are very grateful to those clubs so far who have responded to our survey, which was issued by the WRU last, and look forward to many more coming in to us over the coming days.
The Wales Air Ambulance charity and the Welsh Rugby Union have launched a project to establish hundreds of potential landing sites for the helicopter charity on rugby pitches across Wales.
Questionnaires have been sent out to all 302 WRU member clubs, and are available on MyWRU, asking them to indicate whether their grounds are suitable for emergency use at night by the helicopters.
The partnership was launched with the help of the Wales squad as they posed for their official squad picture ahead of their RBS 6 Nations title defence, which opens against Ireland at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.
A large selection of the 300 plus rugby pitches in Wales have been identified as potential landing sites in emergencies.
If clubs respond positively to the WAA questionnaire on site visits will take place to assess the potential of the pitches as landing sites.
Mr Williams added: “As an air ambulance operation, our crews can land anywhere during a mission, but having dedicated landing sites that are already surveyed means we can land safely in the heart of communities a lot faster.
“Having a register of well-lit pitches also means we could potentially land in poor visibility or even at night.”
WAA chief executive Angela Hughes said: “We’re absolutely thrilled that this partnership has taken off with the Welsh Rugby Union. Having registered landing sites is a huge step forward in our on-going development and mission for the people of Wales.”
