HEMS in Europe

[av8thor]

Hi all,
Im looking to put together a table of HEMS operators in Europe under the following headings.
Country
HEMS Y or N
Night Ops Y or N
NVG Ops Y or N ( if Y then just prepared Pads,airports etc or full primary HEMS)
IFR rated pilots
Dual/Single Pilot
Type of Aircraft.

Not too difficult getting the likes of the UK, Switerland etc but can be difficult for the less obvious countries.
Any info greatly appreciated about any country.
Particularly interested to hear any of the above info from HEMS pilots.

Thanks

Countries I'm trying to include if it helps
Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Belarus Bosnia Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Rep Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Lithuania Luxemburg Macedonia Malta Moldova Montenegro Netherlands
Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom

[9Aplus]

Croatia 0
Bosnia 0
Montenegro 0
:sad:
Slovenia Police helicopter unit
AW109E and AB412

[DauphinDude]

Norway:

HEMS: Yes, Luftambulansen, parapublic.
Night Ops: Yes.
NVG Ops: Yes.
IFR rated pilots: Yes.
Dual/Single Pilot: Single pilot IFR.
Type of Aircraft: EC135 mostly, 1 EC145 and a few AW139 (multi crew, patient transport).

[DauphinDude]

Iceland:


Landhelgisgæsla: Coast guard, public. Does maritime SAR and onshore Air ambulance missions.

Multi crew, IFR, night and NVG equipped AS332 and AS365.

[MartinCh]

Czech Rep:
network of Alfa Helicopter, DSA and military/police
DSA: EC135 variants
Alfa H: EC135, Bell 427 (the only country in the world using it for EMS) and B206L4T still some left in Alfa H's fleet, but seems not actively flying.

Czech Military: W3-A Sokol, Mil-17 in the past, could be used if large scale op
Czech Police: EC135 (they also have some B412, but not EMS AFAIK)

Mostly single pilot (don't know details for police/mil), DAY VFR - some inadvertent IMC/CFIT crashes/crashlandings of Alfa H - one 427, one B206L4T previous years - speaks for itself. Military could fly IFR or night time, but some legal issues these days.

Slovakia: company ATE operating 7 bases with A109, some NVG use and what seems Special night VFR. Lots of mountain rescue missions.

Can update, ask first hand for more info, if special interest etc.

[Xon]

Poland

Polish Medical Air Rescue operates from 17 regional HEMS bases (+1 season base) and medical planes base EPWA/Warsaw (24h). In main base on EPBC there's FTD for training purposes. Helicopters are equipped for night operations, one or two pilots + paramedic and doctor, IFR. Planes: two pilots, paramedic, doctor.

Bases and operating hours: Dla dyspozytorów medycznych - Lotnicze Pogotowie Ratunkowe (http://www.lpr.com.pl/pl/dla-dyspozytorow.html#s209)

There's almost 1000 designated places for night landings.

Fleet: 23x EC135 + 1x Piaggio P.180 Avanti and 1x Piaggio P.180 Avanti II

[av8thor]

Xon,

Thats great thanks. When you say equipped for night ops are you talking about Night Vision Goggles of Night VFR.

9Aplus,

Thats great thanks very much

Martinch,

Great thanks.

DauphinDude,

Great thanks, no actual HEMS as such so in Iceland, but still SAR and Inland Air Ambulance which would probably cover similar missions.

[9Aplus]

Slovakia: company ATE operating 7 bases with A109A109 K2 ATE is only EMS operator of sub type, before was REGA too

Czech Rep:
network of Alfa Helicopter, DSA and military/police
Czech Military: W3-A Sokol, Mil-17 in the past, could be used if large scale op
Only secondary SAR level, before entrance in full EU membership was
primary EMS/SAR,
To be withdrawn from service soon, announced recently....

[Phoinix]

Country: Slovenia
HEMS: Y (Police serves as primary operator, Army for backup)
Night Ops: N
NVG Ops: N
IFR rated pilots: Y
Dual/Single Pilot: Dual
Type of Aircraft: 1x A109E, 1x Bell 212, 1x Bell 412
Medical team: one paramedic, one doctor

[Flying Bull]

Hi av8thor,

just some info - may be some HEMS-pilots can give you mor inforation

Country - Germany
HEMS Y or N - Yes - private firms and goverment helicopter underway
Night Ops Y or N - on some stations
NVG Ops Y or N ( if Y then just prepared Pads,airports etc or full primary HEMS)
- NVG operations started a couple of months ago with one operator so far
IFR rated pilots - mostly not
Dual/Single Pilot - mostly single
Type of Aircraft.- BK117, EC 145, EC 135
some links
ADAC im Einsatz - Luftrettung - Zahlen und Fakten (http://www.adac.de/infotestrat/adac-im-einsatz/luftrettung/wir-ueber-uns/zahlen-fakten/default.aspx?ComponentId=52989&SourcePageId=34350)

Luftrettung, Notfallrettung, Hubschrauberrettung, Ambulanzflüge - DRF Luftrettung (http://www.drf-luftrettung.de/)

Betreiber | rth.info - Faszination Luftrettung | Rettungshubschrauber online (http://www.rth.info/betreiber/betreiber.php?show=bmi)

Luftrettung in Deutschland (http://www.rettungshubschrauber.de/)

Greetings Flying Bull

[Tazzz]

Hi.

Portugal,

HEMS - Y

NIGHT OPS - Y

NVG - N

IFR PILOTS - Y

MULTI CREW - Y

AIRCRAFT 3 x A109E / 2 x BELL 412 EP

:ok:

[av8thor]

This info is great, thanks very much to all.
Also whats the standard medical crew in most place ,
two paramedics, doctor and paramedic, one paramedic?

[Lima Oscar]

Country : France
HEMS Y or N : yes, SAMU, Securite Civile and Gendarmerie
Night Ops Y or N : Yes
NVG Ops Y or N : Yes, Securite Civile and Gendarmerie already using NVG and SAMU are looking for it.
IFR rated pilots : Depends of the base
Dual/Single Pilot : mostly single pilot
Type of Aircraft : EC135, EC145, MD900, AS355N, A109 and Dauphin.

[Rocky135]

Country: AUSTRIA
HEMS: yes (Oeamtc, Heli Austria, Schider, ARA, Wucher, Schenk, Flymed)
Night Ops: only secondary missions (one Oeamtc base 24/7)
NVG Ops: only on the 24/7 base
IFR rated pilots: mostly not
Dual/Single Pilot: always single
Type of Aircraft: EC 135, AW 109SP, BK 117, MD 902, AS 355, Bell 412

Standard crew: pilot, doctor, paramedic

[eurocopter beans]

Keep up the good work snake!!

[aegir]

Country: Italy
HEMS Y or N: Yes, different operators
Night Ops Y or N: Yes, but only a few bases and for secondary missions
NVG Ops Y or N: Not at all!!
IFR rated pilots: Yes, mandatory
Dual/Single Pilot: Single apart for night missions
Type of Aircraft.: more or less > 16x EC145/BK117 C1, 7xAW139, 3xAS365N3, 11xA109 S, 4xA109E, 3xEC135T2+, 6xB412.

[indrek]

Country: Estonia
HEMS: Y - more like medical transport. Estonian Police and Border guard aviation group
Night OPS: Y
NVG Ops: Soon Y
IFR rated pilots: Y
Dual/Single Pilot: Dual
3 AW 139 / 2 Let L-410 Turbolet

[kmax]

Belgium

North AS 355 Day only

South EC145 DAY & NIGHT
no IFR & NVG operations

[9Aplus]

:D excellent idea, will forward results to my Gov....

Recently we have made some math that during last 15 y
9A have burned through expensive military transport
helicopters block hours, only for secondary med transport
value of 3 x small twin full equipment (20 M USD) :E

5000 euro Mi171 block hour, no equipment, no insurance, no proper training
instead of
3000 euro for light twin, insurance, equipment, suitable IFR rating and med team

[Beltran]

Spain

HEMS Y or N: Yes, INAER is almost the only operator with around 90% market.
Night Ops Y or N: "Yes" in the Islands and 'Castilla la mancha Province'. "No" in the rest"
NVG Ops Y or N ( if Y then just prepared Pads,airports etc or full primary HEMS): Yes, just in Castilla la mancha
IFR rated pilots: Yes when needed (see above)
Dual/Single Pilot: dual
Type of Aircraft: Mainly A109E and EC135. plus 2 EC145 and some B412 wich will be changed shortly for 109E
Roster: 15on-15off (most common), 20on-10ff, 7on-7off(rare)

[AlfonsoBonzo]

Is there anyone that could tell me what the general requirements are for HEMS in Europe and if the various operators have fixed roster e.g 7/7, 14/14.

Cheers

[av8thor]

Thank you all for taking the time to post this information. Has been a great help. Feel free to continue to add to this thread. It is/will be handy to refer to if anyone else runs a search on HEMS.

Thanks again.

Safe flying

[henra]

Is it correct that only german pilots doing night HEMS without being IR rated/IFR backup?

Other countrys?

I'm not aware that in Germany there is any station doing Night HEMS with non IFR rated pilots.

Generally speaking primary HEMS in Germany is strictly daytime VFR ops.
IFR only secondary HEMS. (There is an experiment running with NVG op's but that is really an exception)

There are 76 stations in Germany.
14 of those are 24/7 (edit: <Mostly> Secondary HEMS).
Biggest operators are ADAC (German Automobile Club) with 34 stations and DRF (public trust) 29 stations, which are private organisations and the German Ministery of the Interior (12 stations).

Types used:
Mainly EC135 for primary HEMS.
BK117 / EC145 some of which also used for secondary HEMS (IFR).
Two stations still using B412 mainly secondary HEMS at least one of them soon to be replaced by an EC145 and one station AS365N2 also mainly secondary HEMS (IFR)

[9Aplus]

Concerning Germany experiment....
I know that Regensburg base, started with NVG in 2011. :ok:
ops goes even today....

[henra]

HDM Luftrettung (daughter of DRF) is conducting primary HEMS at night since years already.


I should have been clearer. Nighttime primary HEMS yes to a limited extent (only one of the three main operators) but not in IFR conditions as far as I know.

[hemsresearcher]

Dear All,
I am trying to put together a masters project on current HEMS operations in the European Economic Area, which is similar to work done by others in the past (hope those projects went well), but updated for 2016 (and limited to certain factors only). Again, some countries have very accessible databases, but others have limited information. I plan to contact HEMS operators formally with a request for completing information I cannot find online, but some things are nearly impossible for me to find (and I am not fantastic at languages other than English, though I struggle on with German and French and have used Google translate for much). I am looking to find:
Number of HEMS bases per country and GPS co-ordinates
Airframes per base (active and back-up/spare)
Night-flying ability
Winch-capability
Staffing per airframe (doctor/ nurse/ paramedic/ HEMS crew member/ winch operators and single or dual pilot)
Source of funding for the service (government/ charity/ insurance/ private etc)
Controller (regional/ national or local dispatch centre).

I wonder if anyone can help direct me to any useful websites that might offer me information on these topics, particularly for countries I am struggling with: Poland, Italy, Spain. Also, I am able often to find a list of bases from a single operator, but wonder if I am missing bases run by other operators? If you come from a European economic area country which has less accessible data and you know where I can legitimately find what I need, I would love to hear from you. I do not expect you to do my project for me!

Any hints would be greatly appreciated and posts in past year have been extremely useful. Thank you. I look forward to hearing any ideas people might have.
Best wishes.

[TOMMY1954]

Portugal medic crew - 1 doctor + 1 nurse

[Aniol]

Hi hemsresearcher,
Could you turn private messages on? I could give you some info and advice regarding HEMS in Spain and how to collect the data you may need.

Regards,

[Self loading bear]

NO PM allowed for probationary new members.

He /she can better open a new email adress dedicated to his project, publish that address on here and live with the spam that might tesch him.
SLB

[hemsresearcher]

Thank you all so much. As I am new to this site I wasn't sure how things worked and didn't realise you had replied so quickly. I thought it hadn't worked! Thank you for the information. I do not know what it takes to end the probationary period.

But I have taken your advice and set up a new email account. Please do let me know about Spain data collection.

[email protected]

I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you once more!

[ropelleri]

Country: FINLAND
HEMS Y or N: YES
Night Ops Y or N: YES
NVG Ops Y or N: YES FULL HEMS
IFR rated pilots: YES
Dual/Single Pilot: BOTH
Type of Aircraft. 3x135, 4x145T2

[topik22]

Country: POLAND
HEMS Y or N: YES
Night Ops Y or N: YES
NVG Ops Y or N: NO
IFR rated pilots: NO
Dual/Single Pilot: SINGLE
Type of Aircraft. 23xEC 135 (17 BASES, 4 BASES 24H, rest 7:00-20:00 LT or 7:00 till 45 minutes before Sunset)

[hemsresearcher]

Dear Topik22,
Thank you. Please can you clarify:
Which of these 4 HEMS bases is 24h? I thought all 5 were:
Gdańsk
Warszawa
Wroclaw
Kraków
Sanok

Also, do you know if there is a doctor on board each flight? And do they perform primary retrieval and secondary transfer or just primary?

Thank you so much. You have been extremely helpful.

[hemsresearcher]

Dear Ropelleri,

Thanks for all that info. A great help.


Does anyone know good websites where to find Italian and Spain HEMS info? Is it still only 6 Spanish bases that perform 24h night flight, or are there now more?

Thanks everyone.

[topik22]

24 H bases: Warsaw, Gdańsk, Kraków, Wrocław,
7-20 LT bases: Białystok, Olsztyn, Szczecin, Poznań, Lublin,
7- till 45 minutes before Sunset: Sanok, Gliwice, Kielce, Zielona Góra, Płock, Suwałki, Bydgoszcz, Łódź.
Hems crew: pilot, HEMS Crew member, doctor,
Primary and secondary missions.

More info:
- Lotnicze Pogotowie Ratunkowe (http://lpr.com.pl/pl/start.html)

If something more please write to me: [email protected]
Greets

[Ducu DC]

Hello guys, kinda new in posting things here (I need help, of course:) but a long time reader of this forum.
Much like av8thor, I am making a study regarding HEMS here in Europe but the main thing I want to know is specially the adherance with EASA 965 regulation, the subpart telling that HEMS must be done under AOC so by civil operators. I am looking for info for each EU member state regarding how it's actually done: military/by Interior Ministers(and if so if the helis have military or civil registration) or private companies. If you have any info about the financing that would be awesome (national wealthcare/ donations etc.)
Looking forward for your answers,
Thanks in advance, cheers!

[hemsresearcher]

Dear Ducu DC,

Re: UK

Welsh and Scottish air ambulance/ HEMS funded by government (except for Scottish charity air ambulance based in Perth - totally charity funded). England mainly charity and some receive grants. I had to look onto each individual website to find our about funding, but a list of HEMS sites can be found at

UK Emergency Aviation - UK & Ireland Air Ambulance Operations A-M (http://www.ukemergencyaviation.co.uk/airambulanceam.htm)
and check the updates tab on the left.

Good luck (sorry cannot help you with other info).

[hemsresearcher]

Dear Topik22
Brilliant.

Thank you so much

[hemsresearcher]

Dear Ducu DC,

Please can you direct me to a website that would give me information on availability (daily? 12months?), medical and pilot staffing, remit (primary/ secondary), funding and night-flying capability of Romanian HEMS? My information on this is very sketchy.
Many thanks. Best wishes

[hoistop]

Dear hemsresearcher and Ducu DC,


I did an overview of HEMS around Europe in 2012 as part of my thesis. Would be great to see your work finished and am willing to help. Please PM me!
hemsresearcher, please define what you consider as HEMS? the line between so called HEMS, SAR and air ambulance (i.e. interhospital transfer) is a bit blurred in real world.
Ducu DC sounds more precise in his quest, however he will touch a hot spot of (mainly government) operators, doing HEMS-like operations within EU, but not complying with 965/2012 (including his home country, as far as I know)
EASA philosophy defines HEMS as "urgent" compared to air ambulance as "normal" air transport of passengers, albeit on strecher and surrounded with medical equipment and doctors (not to forget, urgent transport of medical personnel, medicines and transplant organs also fall under 965+HEMS approval)
Keep up the good work!
hoistop

[TeeS]

Hi Hoistop
My former associates will roll their eyes in boredom at me ranting on about this again; however, your use of and air ambulance (i.e. interhospital transfer) will tend to continue the misconception that taking a patient from one hospital to another cannot be carried out under HEMS. I suspect I will be fully retired by the time this misconception is finally put to bed but I keep trying - as you suggest later in your post, the HEMS requirement is based upon medical urgency not where the patient is being taken from/to.
Cheers
TeeS

[hemsresearcher]

Hi, Hoistop.

Having difficulty defining HEMS as it seems to mean different things in different places. For this project have generally regarded it as urgent helicopter transport and although many helicopters are designated for inter-hospital transfer, many still participate in primary missions. Also, offshore helicopters perform ' air ambulance' as well as urgent medical evacuations. I have encompassed most types if they include primary retrieval, but this is certainly a limitation of my study as in different countries different services undertake HEMS missions. In general I have excluded SAR, if there are dedicated HEMS in that country, but not if the SAR helicopters perform an integral and regular participation in HEMS tasks. Probably no clearer, am afraid. Not sure how to PM but will work it out. Have an email address at [email protected]. Thanks for the input.

[9Aplus]

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 :D

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/commissioners/2014-2019/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 ? :cool:

[KK]

Wiltshire Air Ambulance
Country UK
HEMS Y
Night Ops Y
NVG Ops Y (Adhoc landings)
IFR rated pilots Y
Single Pilot
Type of Aircraft. Bell 429

[9Aplus]

Hats down to journalists in Slovenia.... S5 CAA director admits: Military HEMS is not
legal in European member country :D (07:50)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8MOtC0-XU-eaFVfLWJockVSNEU/view?usp=drive_web

Before you ask.... Yes, Croatia 9A have even worse problem ;)

[9Aplus]

Scandal going on.... EC Violeta Bulc involved....
24ur.com - Koga ??iti Violeta Bulc? Evropa kljub prijavi o neurejenih razmerah helikopterskega re?evanja v Sloveniji ne ve ni? (http://www.24ur.com/novice/slovenija/koga-sciti-violeta-bulc.html)

[eivissa]

I'm not aware that in Germany there is any station doing Night HEMS with non IFR rated pilots.

Generally speaking primary HEMS in Germany is strictly daytime VFR ops.
IFR only secondary HEMS. (There is an experiment running with NVG op's but that is really an exception)

There are 76 stations in Germany.
14 of those are 24/7 (edit: <Mostly> Secondary HEMS).
Biggest operators are ADAC (German Automobile Club) with 34 stations and DRF (public trust) 29 stations, which are private organisations and the German Ministery of the Interior (12 stations).

Types used:
Mainly EC135 for primary HEMS.
BK117 / EC145 some of which also used for secondary HEMS (IFR).
Two stations still using B412 mainly secondary HEMS at least one of them soon to be replaced by an EC145 and one station AS365N2 also mainly secondary HEMS (IFR)

I am surprised that until now no one has clarified this post...

The opposite is the case. Only a minority of the pilots doing night HEMS in Germany is instrument rated and/or current in instrument flight. Since Germany allows NVFR operations the only restriction is that all HEMS night operations are dual pilot, but mostly NVFR. On a day only HEMS base you are only allowed to start a HEMS missions single pilot during the daylight period, but then finish it into night time. No dispatch into the night single pilot. The night bases are (as far as I know) all being NVG trained at the moment. Some have started normal NVG ops a while ago, some havent started the training yet. IFR even on secondary HEMS is not a big topic for the future for all the operators apart from DRF/HDM/"Team DRF".