THEY have been used to ferry people to and from oil rigs in the Far East, and are known for their reliability and ability to fly at night.

Now one of the helicopters used by BP Offshore in Shanghai and Jakarta could end up being bought for about £1.5 million by the charity Yorkshire Air Ambulance to carry patients across this region.

Air ambulance chief executive Martin Eede revealed today that he had identified the aircraft as "absolutely ideal" to work as the service's proposed second helicopter.

"They are fantastically reliable - they have a 98.5 per cent reliability, which means they are only unavailable for use for 1.5 per cent of the time," he said. "They are also have weather radar equipment, which could prove useful while up in the Dales or on the Moors."

But he said their ability to fly at night - something which the service's existing helicopter cannot do - was another major factor in their favour.

He said there were nationwide moves to reduce the number of accident and emergency units and create specialist regional centres of excellence, but this could leave patients in remote rural locations facing even longer journeys by road to get to hospital.

It would, therefore, be increasingly advantageous to be able to pick up patients by helicopter from remote spots in the middle of the night and get them to hospital swiftly.

He said there was only one difficulty in assessing the helicopters - the long and potentially expensive trip to the East to examine them.

An appeal to buy a second helicopter for the service was informally launched in the wake of BBC Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond's high-speed crash at Elvington Airfield, after which the air ambulance flew him to hospital.

Mr Eede said the fund total stood at about £235,000, but it was likely the appeal would be formally launched in the New Year.

The second helicopter will enable the air ambulance to attend many more incidents. It is set to be sited at Malton during the summer months, when the service receives many call-outs to incidents along the Yorkshire Coast and on the North York Moors. Mr Eede said the service might get the craft on lease for the first year, so that its suitability could be assessed.