This manual was created to provide guidelines on Medical Evacuation, Hospital Flights, Humanitarian Flights and Organ Transport Operations.
Definition
Flight with a helicopter operating for the purpose of facilitating emergency medical care, where immediate and rapid transport is essential, carrying:
PRIMARY: Flight characterised by situations where the patient's life is at risk, is recognized by the ATC as a priority flight, overcome in priority only by an emergency aircraft. It may take direct routes and/or with the coordination of the ATC through airspaces or corridors normally closed to traffic.
The primary intervention consists in arriving at the site of an accident, whether road or domestic. This could involve landing on highways, roads, fields, squares, beaches, etc.…
SECONDARY: Non-priority flight, normally the patient is stabilised and not life threatening.
Secondary intervention is normally a transfer of a patient from one hospital to another, in the same region or to a specialised hospital on the national territory.
Transfers can also take place at night and take off or landing at the nearest airport in case the hospital to be reached does not have a certified pad for night flight.
A HEMS flight is activated by an Operations Center that will instruct the helicopter about the position of the Target to be reached. The Pilot will communicate that position to ATC and the controller must facilitate the helicopter in its flight towards it.
In weather conditions below the VMC (as required for helicopters) the pilot is not exempt from requesting authorization for Special VFR. The minimum Ceiling value in Special VFR operations does not apply to HEMS flights
"ATS, I-XXXX HEMS, with the target in sight (or on final for the target), will report before (or after) take-off."
If it has not already been made in the last call, it must be agreed with the ATS if the next report must be carried out before take-off or subsequently after.
The same steps must be performed by reaching the hospital, both for the transfer of the patient from the target, and during a secondary intervention, if this is carried out between two hospitals.
The patient's health condition should never be reported to the ATS.
As per local/national regulation.
Any simulations of "Operations Centers" that instruct pilots on the nature of the mission will have to be implemented differently through "private" channels such as Discord or similar.
In reality, a special flight plan submission regulation is established for HEMS flights, under which, as far as possible, letters of operations must be concluded between the operator and the ATS unit responsible in the airspace where the HEMS base of operations is located. Since this is impracticable on IVAO, the flight plan must be submitted normally before the connection.
In item 15 of the FPL only the name of the city where the hospital is located must be reported. The HEMS flight is considered as a HOSP flight when filling out a flight plan. You must enter in item 18 the words:
STS/HOSP
They are operations for the fast transport of people from one place to another and who need immediate medical attention, the transported patients define themselves as in imminent life threatening
They can be carried out by any aircraft (aeroplane or helicopter) used to transport patients and both civil and military carriers contribute to the service.
When preparing the evacuation of a patient by helicopter, the following points should be taken into account:
The MEDEVAC flight plan is automatically exempted from AFTM measures, and has no limits in the time of submission. It can be filled in as a normal GAT flight except for the status of the flight to be entered in field 18 as follows:
STS/MEDEVAC
Hospital flights are almost identical to MEDEVAC flights for management except that the patient, although in critical condition, is not in imminent danger of life.
They can be carried out by any aircraft (aeroplane or helicopter) used to transport patients and both civil and military carriers contribute to the service.
The flight plan of a HOSP mission is not automatically exempted from AFTM measures. It can be completed as a normal GAT flight, to indicate to ATCs that such flights may have special handling the status of the flight must be entered in item 18 as follows:
STS/HOSP
These are particular missions that involve aircraft in the transport of organs for transplants or medical personnel designated to carry out the transplant. Similar to HOSPITAL flights as conduction and level of “urgency”
The flight plan of an organ transport mission is not automatically exempted from AFTM measures. It can be filled out like a regular GAT flight.
Certain flights may be allowed to be exempted from AFTM measures and will have to include the indicator of:
STS/AFTMX HOSP
Humanitarian flights are arranged by the competent authority, which acts according to the directives concerning medical flights abroad and state flights. Humanitarian flights can have both domestic and foreign destinations (including intercontinental), the same flights do not concern people in imminent danger of life. The same humanitarian flights are not limited to purely health needs, a humanitarian flight can also be used for the transport of material and basic necessities following major disasters.
They can be carried out by any aircraft (airplane or helicopter) used to transport patients and both civil and military carriers contribute to the service.
The flight plan of a humanitarian mission is not automatically exempted from AFTM measures. It can be completed as a normal GAT flight, to indicate to ATCs that such flights may have special handling the status of the flight must be entered in item 18 as follows:
STS/HUM
Certain flights may be allowed to be exempted from AFTM measures and will have to include the indicator of:
STS/AFTMX HUM