Can you change your callsign to 'Medevac' and what does it mean?

[Jumeirah James]

Ladies and Gents,

I heard a flight the other night change his callsign from "__123" to "__123 Medevac". He had a sick pax on board and wanted some sort of ATC priority. I thought:
a. You could only call your self a Medevac flight / callsign if you'd specifically took off as a Medevac flight, and
b. If you had an 'emergency', even medical, you had to use either PAN PAN or MAYDAY.

I'd love to know the answer please. FYI, ATC used the callsign back to him and did not question it.

Regards

JJ

[Karl Bamforth]

I suspect that the tower knew he was a medivac aircraft or was at least capable of medivac tasks.

The change of callsign would indicate that he now had a patient on board and may be given some priority routing.

On more than one occasion I have been asked to hold or orbit to allow "callsign Medivac" to transit low level.

[Plazbot]

Never heard of a)

b.) is correct.

In OZ, Air Ambulances use Med1 and Med 2 to describe the type of task they are carrying out. I am in the Sand Pit as well JJ (possibly not your real name) and PAN PAN/Mayday are what we expect.

[BrATCO]

I vote for b) too.

[Jumeirah James]

Thanks for your replies everyone. Much appreciated.

b. makes sense to me too.

[Thone1]

Hi all,

this is my first post, I´m just working through the forum... lots to read....

Just a european point of view:
When we (military SAR) are on a training sortie and then get tasked for a medevac from an island, a ship, etc, we would let ATC know that our callsign has just changed (from the RCC and thereby operating authority) to Medevac or even Rescue if appropriate.

When someone on board gets a medical emergency then this in my eyes would be a PAN or a MAYDAY. Only primary or secondary SAR assets can use the callsign MEDEVAC or RESCUE.

Regards,

Thomas

[malecontrol]

I would also go with b).

But I have heard a colleague of mine (an ATCO) once say Medivac is used for aircraft carrying medical equipment but if you have a casualty like a sick passenger on board it's called a Casivac! Is there any truth to this?

[Dual ground]

Many years ago I was on a SAR flt in the UK. Our aircraft would operate on training sorties as SeaKing 190 and Seaking 191. As sonn as they were tasked by RCC the callsign would change to Rescue 190 or Rescue 191. This could happen prior to start up if scrambled, or mid sortie if tasked whilst airborne. It was the aviation equivalent of switching on the "Blues and Twos" I guess you could say. Suspect that the situation referred to was similar. Patient condition deteriorated perhaps, or the aircraft was positioning and was then responding to a call received whilst airborne?

[Big Pistons Forever]

In North America "Medivac" has to be filed in the flight plan. It's use is goverened by the honour system. That is if you as the pilot feel that the medical urgency requires special handling than you declare the flight a "medivac". Many flights with patients on board are not medivac if there is no particular urgency. Unfortunately this is sometimes abused as I know of one case where a pilot described his flight as a medivac because he had a hot date waiting for him :rolleyes: My last flight as a medivac was an organ transfer with an extremely tight time line. I explained the situation to clearance delivery and they coordinated down the line so I got outstanding handling. There ws no way I could have done the flight any faster :ok:

If you have a in flight medical issue that requires expidited handling than you use PAN, or MAYDAY. I had this happen once (suspected passenger stroke) and again ATC were fantastic, giving me direct routings, unrestricted descent and coordinating an ambulance to meet the aircraft.

[throw a dyce]

In the North Sea my understanding of the system was a Medevac heli flight was used to evacute walking wounded,back to an ambulance at the airport.A Casevac was life threatening and usually flew straight to hospital.Both were put on the flight plan to assist ATC,but not used in the callsign.The heli companies had a special flight number for those flights
The SAR helis use a Rescue callsign in similar situations,and an Airliner with a medical emergency that serious should declare an emergency(Pan or Mayday).
However it is the sandpit.:cool: