Definition

HEMS flight means a flight by a helicopter operating under a HEMS approval, where immediate and rapid transportation is essential and the purpose of which is either of the following:

• to facilitate emergency medical assistance by carrying one or more of the following:
  • medical personnel;
  • medical supplies (equipment, blood, organs, drugs);
  • ill or injured persons and other persons directly involved;
• to perform an operation where a person faces an imminent or anticipated health risk posed by the environment and either of the following conditions is met:
  • that person needs to be rescued or provided with supplies;
  • persons, animals or equipment need to be transported to and from the HEMS operating site;

Source: EU Regulation 965/2012

Description

HEMS flights operate to incidents where an immediate response is required for the safety of life (e.g. road accidents) and includes transporting patients to hospital. Their main advantages (over e.g. ambulances) are the abilities to respond quickly and to reach almost any location.

The nature of HEMS flights exposes the operators to specific hazards, such as time pressures, planning challenges and environmental factors. These are described in detail in a dedicated article. Therefore, specific requirements for crew training are often defined. For example, in the European Union these are described in Regulation 965/2012 (see Further Reading below) and include:

• The need for dedicated approval by the competent authority for the operator to conduct HEMS flights.
• Equipment requirements
• Crew requirements, including training requirements
• Procedure requirements (e.g. briefing conduct, mission risk assessment, etc.)

HEMS operations are often given higher priority than regular commercial or private traffic (even for repositioning flights) and are sometimes exempt from certain regulation provisions (e.g. compliance with [[VFR]]/[[SVFR]] minima) or need to comply with specific (reduced) weather minima when flying under VFR if certain conditions are met.

Further Reading

• UK CAA CAP 493: MATS part 1, Section 1, Chapter 4
• Regulation 965/2012 (consolidated version)
• Technical crew member in HEMS, HHO or NVIS operations
• HindSight 29 - Under pressure: The self-induced stress of a HEMS pilot