Southampton General Hospital
SOUTHAMPTON GENERAL HOSPITAL: Private helipad
Notes: Both these pictures (2018) were obtained from Google Earth ©
I do not know when this helipad was constructed. It wasn't there in 2007.
Location: On the NE side of the hospital, roughly 2nm NW of Southampton city centre
Period of operation: ? The helipad wasn't there in 2007
NOTES: I find it interesting that the architects designing helipads in recent years invariably discount the possibility of a major disaster ever happening. This applies very often at hospitals in the UK with helipads above ground level.
This helipad is a case in point - with an entirely arbitary 14.6 tonne limit. Why? If a major disaster occurred in this region, with RAF ODIHAM just 30nm NE of Southampton with their Chinooks, they would be ideally suited to mass evacuation duties for the most seriously injured.
But, a Chinook weighs over ten tonnes empty, and has a MTOW (Maximum Take-Off Weight) of 22 tonnes. So, obviously, the architects deliberately decided to design a helipad unsuitable for use by Chinooks. Why? The cost of making a helipad suitable for use by Chinooks would be next to nothing in the greater scheme of things.
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