Jetpack rescue: Paramedic flies to the top of a mountain in 3 minutes

Did you ever think you’d see a jet suit flying in real life? I didn’t and certainly not in the Lake District.

Helvellyn is the third highest peak in the UK’s Lake District. Every year millions of people flock to the region to climb its mountains. But what if something goes wrong?

The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) is a charity that provides incredible helicopter rescue but when the weather gets rough, a helicopter can’t always make the journey.

Richard Browning from Gravity Industries, a British aeronautical innovation company, has the solution.

After just six days training, Jamie Walsh, a paramedic for GNAAS used one of Gravity’s Jet Suits to fly up Helvellyn for the first time ever.

The journey, which would normally take around 1 hour 20 minutes on foot, was cut down to just 3 minutes and 30 seconds via jet suit.

“If you’re a cardiac patient or somebody that really needs critical care, 1 hour 20 minutes is often too long for really important cases,” says Richard Browning, founder and chief test pilot at Gravity Industries.

“We can get a trained professional very quickly to the side of a casualty in very difficult weather or very difficult physical terrain in a way that often [rescuers] on foot, or a vehicle or a helicopter can’t do.”

This is an enormous step for search and rescue and, in the grand scheme of things, it hasn’t taken Gravity Industries all that long.

“Back in 2016, I hatched this unusual vision of ‘Could you reimagine how human beings could fly?’,” explains Richard.

Gravity’s 1,000 horsepower jet suits work with thrusters on the pilot’s back and two small jet engines on each arm forming a stable tripod shape of power.

According to Richard, after several years of development, the suits no longer require a