What Is an Air Ambulance?

The idea of air ambulance transport began in 1910 when two United States Army medical officers attempted a test flight with a fixed-wing aircraft. Captain George H. R. Gosman and Lieutenant A. L. Rhodes could not get further support from officials to explore the use of aircraft to transport patients. The French military were the first to place patients, two at a time, in the fuselage of a plane to airlift them from the Flanders battlefield in April 1918. The United States Army Medical Corps utilized their own military planes to bring surgeons to the sites of air crashes to assist patients. Seeing the success of this, the United States Army mandated that each military airfield must have an air ambulance. These aircraft were specially designed to hold only one patient at a time. During World War II, the flight-nurse corps was formed and air ambulance routes were established. Almost 100,000 patients were transported by the military each month from 1943 to 1945. Civilian use of aircraft to fly seriously injured patients from an area possibly began in remote areas of Scandinavia, Canada, and Australia. Bush pilots who already brought mail and supplies to remote communities also occasionally transported patients to better-equipped hospitals. The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia's Outback was the first full-time air ambulance service in the world. It was founded in 1928. In 1947, Schaefer Air Service became the first United States air ambulance company. From that time, the use of air ambulance services by both the military and the civilian population has increased to the extent that almost no area of the world is too remote to be reached if necessary.

An air ambulance is sometimes the only type of medical unit which can get into and out of a remote location with an injured person. The air ambulance also is an important transportation vehicle when donated organs must be rushed to a waiting transplant patient. Where a road trip might take an hour, an air ambulance taking a seriously injured patient to a hospital might take only 15 minutes. Some air ambulances bring citizens back to their home country if they become ill or get injured overseas.

An air ambulance carries a medical team and equipment to the sites of emergencies. A medical team consists of a pilot, a registered nurse and a flight certified paramedic. A respiratory therapist or a doctor may also be on board. Flight crew members may be required to belong to the National Flight Paramedics Association. Each member of the flight crew must be under a certain weight to be allowed to accompany the flight if the transport is a helicopter. The medical equipment carried onboard includes a defibrillator or heart monitor, respiratory equipment, a suction unit, necessary drugs, IV and infusion sets, and any special medical instruments needed for the patient. An air ambulance can be a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft like the Hawker 800, the largest United States-based medical transport jet.

Some air ambulance services are dependent upon public donations to keep their helicopters flying. Wales Air Ambulance is an example of one such registered charitable service in Great Britain. Other air ambulance services are privately owned. Some are owned by hospitals. The United States Air National Guard deploys Blackhawk helicopters as air ambulances.

The usual air ambulance is a helicopter which is uniquely suited for landing and taking off from areas from which an airplane could not. A helicopter can make a trip from the site of an accident directly to the nearest equipped hospital without having to traverse winding, bumpy or low-maintenance roads.

Because of seven air ambulance accidents in 2008, three groups representing the medical helicopter industry have recommended some safety measures to the United States National Transportation Board (NSTB). Under their suggestion, medical pilots would have to wear night vision goggles during flights. The federal government would be asked to give money to hospitals for the maintenance of their helipads. The Association of Air Medical Services will be allowed to have a voice at NSTB hearings regarding air ambulance services.