Air Ambulance civilian crew rest times

BravoHotel

BravoHotel

Well-Known Member
It is my guess most air ambulances operate under FAR 135. (Please correct if I am wrong) FAR 135.263, 265 states crew rest requirements. To get to the point. We have someone here who needs to get off the island, like yesterday. There has been an air ambulance dispatched from west coast and they are on the ground in Hawaii for almost 20 hours before they will depart for here.

The money this company charges is a lot, you think if you were in the life saving business you would try to get to where your patient is in the shortest amount of time possible. In this case I think flying a crew via commercial air carrier to Hawaii. When the airplane arrived, swap crews so they can get to where they need to go (in this case here) in a hurry. Meanwhile our doc is pulling long hours with an unstable patient for almost 3 days.

We have also had two DOD aircraft capable of carrying a person also leave out of here but there seems to be mountains of red tape to put a patient on board.

I know the first rule of rescue is not to become a victim your self, you can't help anyone if you're a victim and you just made a bad situation worse. A flight crew needs proper rest, but now is not the time to boondoggle. Is this normal or do I smell something fishy?
 
It's the same rest requirements for any 135 unscheduled. Flying someone in on an air carrier does not count as rest, so that wouldn't really solve anything. I don't know the 2 crew rest requirements off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure it's not 20 hours.
This doesn't happen to be premier jets in a lr36 does it?
 
Weird that a DoD aircraft can't take him...such as a C-17 or C-130 passing through, or even a DHS aircraft, in this case a USCG HC-130, which are based at CGAS Barbers Point, Hawaii. From what I know in a general sense, emergency evac's from Wake and Midway are handled in this way. They're certainly handled in this way from Arctic/Antarctic.
 
Hawks said:
It is my guess most air ambulances operate under FAR 135. (Please correct if I am wrong) FAR 135.263, 265 states crew rest requirements. To get to the point. We have someone here who needs to get off the island, like yesterday. There has been an air ambulance dispatched from west coast and they are on the ground in Hawaii for almost 20 hours before they will depart for here.

The money this company charges is a lot, you think if you were in the life saving business you would try to get to where your patient is in the shortest amount of time possible. In this case I think flying a crew via commercial air carrier to Hawaii. When the airplane arrived, swap crews so they can get to where they need to go (in this case here) in a hurry. Meanwhile our doc is pulling long hours with an unstable patient for almost 3 days.

We have also had two DOD aircraft capable of carrying a person also leave out of here but there seems to be mountains of red tape to put a patient on board.

I know the first rule of rescue is not to become a victim your self, you can't help anyone if you're a victim and you just made a bad situation worse. A flight crew needs proper rest, but now is not the time to boondoggle. Is this normal or do I smell something fishy?
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I flew the organ donor runs and 135 is 135. I had to abide by the rest rules. It is a legal requirement, enforced by the rest rules. These guys have the rest requirements and they need to follow them for what sounds like a double ocean crossing. You basically have a 135 jet out on your ramp (even if its painted like an ambulance) and even if the guys wanted to play hero they would be breaking Federal Law.

I understand your frustration but this delay certainly isn't intentional. It's just the way the world works sometimes. Even if people die.
 
MikeD a KC-10 and C-17 on their way to Japan. The individual is a FN (THAI) contractor, but Japan has perfectly good hospitals. I thought red tape went away when a life was on the line.
 
Hawks said:
MikeD a KC-10 and C-17 on their way to Japan. The individual is a FN (THAI) contractor, but Japan has perfectly good hospitals. I thought red tape went away when a life was on the line.
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I thought so too. Especially when the geographic area is so remote. It may be something that would have to go through the State Department, but even so, that should be able to be done rather quickly, one would think.
 
z987k said:
It's the same rest requirements for any 135 unscheduled. Flying someone in on an air carrier does not count as rest, so that wouldn't really solve anything. I don't know the 2 crew rest requirements off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure it's not 20 hours.
This doesn't happen to be premier jets in a lr36 does it?
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Maybe. I will definitely know tomorrow. What frustrates me is the fact is has taken about 3 days to get an air ambulance out here, and I have seen two DoD aircraft depart.
 
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