Air ambulance sent to save unconscious rider is ordered off £9bn sheik's estate

The stunned crew of an air ambulance were ordered off the estate of a billionaire sheik after landing there to rescue an unconscious horse rider.
The helicopter had to take off and land elsewhere, meaning there was a 20-minute delay in reaching the woman, who had fallen on her head and suffered a neck injury.

Paramedics had been about to use bolt-cutters to cut the 6ft security fence around Sheik Mohammed Al Maktoum’s mansion to reach the rider lying on neighbouring Chobham Common in Surrey.

But a security guard told them to stop – despite the crew being allowed by law to land anywhere and damage property to get to a patient.

A fellow horse-rider who saw the accident said: ‘The guard said, “Sorry mate, you can’t cut the fence.”

‘The paramedic told him that they had to get to someone who was badly injured.
‘But the guard just replied, “You’ll have to take off again then.” The paramedic talked to the doctor with him and then the helicopter took off again.

‘It took another 20 minutes before they finally reached the woman. She fell off her horse while it was cantering and landed on her head and was unconscious.

‘There was a paramedic already with her, who had arrived by car, but I think the helicopter crew wanted to reach her quickly and transport her to hospital.’

The injured rider, in her 40s, was stabilised and then airlifted to hospital. She has now been discharged.

The racehorse-owning sheik, who is Crown Prince of Dubai and a friend of the Queen, has tight security at his £75million Longcross House estate.

A vast surveillance operation secures the 30 apartments and 90 acres of garden to protect the sheik’s children from kidnap. All family members have codenames and are accompanied by security guards with radios.

Any routes the family travel along are always checked out first and if they venture on to the common to ride, protection officers track their movements.

The sheik is fifth on Forbes magazine’s global ‘rich list’ with a £9billon fortune.

His head of security confirmed the helicopter had landed, saying: ‘It just plonked down outside the house, landing on private ground without permission, and that was the issue.

'Aircraft can’t just fly in like that. I understand it was an emergency, but they should have notified us. We have people working in the grounds, including gardeners, and if they have protective earphones on they can’t hear anything.
Rescue call: The Surrey Air Ambulance helicopter
‘It could have landed on top of someone, or there could have been other aircraft coming into the estate – we do have a landing area here.

‘One guard was relaying back to me what was going on as I was in the control room. I told the guard to tell them to contact me direct, but before we could sort it out they just took off again.

‘We don’t have a problem with the air ambulance landing here or cutting the fence. They’ve done it before, but we do need to be notified first.

‘Sheik Al Maktoum wasn’t here at the time, but even so it sparks a panic if an aircraft suddenly appears on your lawn.’

Neighbour Jill Wood said: ‘We were surprised the helicopter had been ordered off the sheik’s estate. The girl was unconscious and in a bad way.’

An air ambulance spokeswoman said: ‘We landed on Sheik Al Maktoum’s estate and were prepared to cut the fence and guards did approach the crew.

‘But at that point we received a radio message saying that the patient wasn’t as badly injured as we thought. The medical team had a discussion with the guards and a decision was taken to move the helicopter.’