Speediwings, I hear you on your 1718 of the 5th June but disagree. Maxi has brought this back to the top with a very apposite use, in GFS, of a euphemism for bottom.
The call out to Cheung Chau is related. It is one of the critical points in the accident that was not investigated, as it was outside of the remit of the investigation. This was not a coroner’s court, and the CAD did not have total investigative powers in this inquiry.
In the country that your profile shows you to be from, EMS operations, I understand, need to have as part of their operations manual a risk assessment matrix. My "matrix" wording may be wrong, but the requirement should assess the risk of every operation, to decide whether it is safely viable. Thus a dispatch at 0300 in IMC to a remote uncharted site at the limit of range which is in low visibility, to pick up a patient that has been assessed by medical staff on the scene as "minor injury, no immediate hospitalisation required" would be disallowed.
Speak to one of the guys who has set up a risk assessment model for an EMS in Oz and they are very interesting people to talk to. It can be proven to save more lives over time by not going, than dispatching to a cut finger.
CC (and other clinics) and the general public in Hong Kong have, I think, a cavalier attitude to using GFS. They also mis-use the ambulance services, as I assume you know.
I think this flight should never have dispatched. As I understand from the media, there was no critical medical requirement for the patient to be moved that night. A risk assessment model for flight operations would have enabled them to make a sound decision on go/no-go.
Forgive me for not understanding another point that you made, as I am unfamiliar with your phrases, "...that the pilot swore the 20 minutes TOS policy..." and, "He continued to swear the 20 minutes TOS rule..."
Is it required to "swear" as in "make an oath" before flight that you will complete the dispatch in 20 minutes? I am not being facetious here; I simply do not understand the word. Thank you.