As far as I know, there has only been one helicopter escape in the UK - 20 years ago.
A hijacked B206 was used to spring two prisoners from Gartree prison. It was a high security prison in those days - but the powers that be hadn't anticipated a helicopter.
Two prisoners escaped - John Kendall, serving 10 years for organising a series of commercial burglaries and another serving life for murder. (Both were recaptured within weeks.)
I represented one of Kendall's 'team' and remember the trial well for a couple of reasons - one of them being that they had a long run taking truck loads of high value goods (booze and tobacco) from cash & carry warehouses in night time burglaries all over the South East using such a simple almost comical method that worked every time. (They were caught when an underworld informant tipped off the police.)
I've been told the pilot was
Uncle Ian of
'Age Discrimination' fame.
Uncle Ian? If it was you, tell us the tale.