A pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance says he regularly has to say sorry to patients for not being Prince William.

Cambs Times: Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, flew to Wisbech with the East Anglian Air Ambulance.Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, flew to Wisbech with the East Anglian Air Ambulance. (Image: Archant)

In the latest episode of Air Ambulance ER on Sky TV Andrew Goodchild said during the Sky 1 programme that he was always “sorry to disappoint everybody.”

Patients often want to know if the Duke of Cambridge, who has been working for the EAAA for nearly a year, will be flying them to hospital.

But William is not always on shift and sometimes it is his colleagues piloting the helicopter instead.

In this week’s episode 78-year-old Margaret Armstrong, who was injured in a three-car road traffic accident near Newmarket, is seen asking: “Is Prince William driving? In the helicopter?”

Cambs Times: Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, flew to Wisbech with the East Anglian Air Ambulance.Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, flew to Wisbech with the East Anglian Air Ambulance. (Image: Archant)

But paramedic Dr Peter Temesvari has to tell her it is Andrew flying the helicopter.

Andrew, who flew Margaret to Addenbrooke’s, where she is treated for a fractured ankle, six broken ribs and a fractured sternum, adds: “I’m always really sorry to disappoint everybody that I’m not him.”

Prince William was most recently seen helping tree surgeon, Jim Schembri, who was knocked unconscious by a tree branch in a garden in Wisbech.

Jim, 37, didn’t realise that the Duke had come to his rescue and joked that he didn’t want William flying him to hospital before realising he had been holding his head for half an hour.

Cambs Times: Prince WilliamPrince William (Image: Archant)

William was later seen comforting and reassuring him after landing at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

Earlier this year William’s employer thanked the public for “letting him get on with his job” as a pilot and said “he’s very much part of the team.”

“The general public has been wonderful - just letting him get on and accepting he’s someone trying to do a job like anyone else,” said a spokeswoman for the EAAA.

Prince William started work with the EAAA last July and is on a rota of day and night shifts with a team of 12 pilots - eight based in Cambridge and four in Norwich.

They respond to around five calls a day in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, ranging from road accidents to heart attacks.