MEDEVAC
A
ir ambulances are not new. Their first documented use occurred during the Siege of Paris in 1870 when balloons were used to evacuate more than 160 soldiers from the besieged city. However, the first true air ambulance flight happened during World War I, when a Serbian officer was flown from the battlefield to a hospital by a plane operated by the French Air Service. According to French records, if casualties could be evacuated by air within six hours of injury, the mortality rate among the wounded would fall from 60% to less than 10% - a staggering reduction! The First Ambulance Jets The first ambulance jets, as we know them today, coincided with the arrival of the first business jets at the end of the 1960’s. Two of the most popular models for medical evacuation (medevac) missions were the
CARE
FAI Air Ambulance (top). Learjet 35 medevac interiors (left). LifePort (right).
Learjet 35 and 36, both of which offered the advantage of high speed and service ceiling. As air ambulances, they were configured to carry one full stretcher, two medical staff and one to two traveling companions. Thanks to their high cabin pressure differential limit, sea level pressure could be maintained up to FL 250, and even FL 280 on the latest models. Their doors were not only tall, but more importantly, they were much wider than those of other light-medium sized jets in the segment. And the installation of a slightly larger ‘cargo’ door, wider than the standard Learjet door, allowed for even easier loading and unloading of patients. Also, the door was close enough to the ground
48 - BART: MAY - JUNE - 2020
WHEN HE ALTHC ARE ARRIVES BY JET Marc Grangier provides a glimpse into the air ambulance service market, keeping up to date on the latest medevac modifications in the industry
that a stretcher ladder was usually unnecessary. Today, there are a total of 474 Lear 35 and 36 jets in operation, with more than two-thirds still used for medevac missions. LifePort, based in Woodland, WA, USA, produces a range of equipment for Learjets, including multi-mission medical interiors. These interiors are built around the company’s Patient Loading Utility System (PLUS), which includes an Advanced Life Support (ALS) base unit, manual loading system, and AeroSled stretcher. Designed for a wide range of mission profiles, its ALS systems offers low-maintenance standard packages that include oxygen, compressed air, vacuum and
electrical inverters. To keep critical backup systems functional during an emergency, the company designed backup power sources, such as J.E.T. Brand Emergency Power Supplies and Power Conditioning equipment, which provide mission-critical functions and enable operators to power two to three essential systems for more than an hour. Multi-Mission Aircraft? Most medevac aircraft are now dedicated specifically to these missions, for the simple reason that when a flight is requested, it is very often urgent, and reconfiguring the aircraft from executive to medevac takes time. Another reason is that air ambu-
