Anno Domini 2107. my home country 9A spent 2016. with military and police "HEMS" all with no concerns about EU 965/2012, national AOC or/and any HEMS approval. Claim "we are saving lives" was enough for public on national level.
On the other hand, local experiment with 4 months pilot with full AOC HEMS (HHMS) starting in 2015. and ending in Jan 2016. had even more safety concerns, some even was subject of EASA audit over the local CCAA
We can see some development over the border in Slovenia, where local CAA have some objections regarding another year under sort of national AOC. In
regard that ->
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/comm...4-2019/bulc_en we may expect some interesting development...
Some documents are already sourced from Commission side, showing that
there is no common understanding of problem even within that EC body...
On behalf of Mr Joshua Salsby
Cabinet Member of Commissioner for Transport
Dear Sir,
I thank you for your mail of XXXXX 2016 on a possible violation by Slovenia of the applicable rules on helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) operations which attracted my attention.
As regards HEMS operations, these are governed by Regulation 216/2008 and its Implementing regulations, which are essentially addressing the safety of such operations, including the specific authorisations granted at national level. This does however not prevent that a Member State to authorise an organisation such as the military, which is not covered by the EU aviation safety rules, to carry out HEMS services. In many countries the army intervenes for exemple to assist in cases of natural disaster. I understand that Slovenia decided that HEMS operations will be provided temporarily by the military, due to the fact that other providers are currently not able to carry out this service.
I forwarded your message to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) which together with the Commission monitors the application of the EU aviation safety rules.
Best regards,
Joshua Salsby
My conclusion is that in regard of distance from Brussels local EU member state can have much less concerns regarding common European laws, regulations and best practice.
Opinions ?
