Air ambulance rules drafted for India
The draft rules for the operation of air ambulance services by non-scheduled operators issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have been made public.
India’s mainstream press has highlighted that the draft rules for the operation of air ambulance services by non-scheduled operators issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have been made public. The DGCA asked stakeholders to submit their responses to the draft Civil Aviation Requirement circular by 27 June.
The draft document specifies the minimum requirements for air ambulance flights operated with single or multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Such aircraft must be fitted with a ‘stretcher with at least two sets of restraining straps’, along with ‘medical oxygen capable of adjustable flow from two to 15 litres per minute’. This equipment must be stored and secured within the flight compartment by suitable restraints, so as ‘to sustain inertia forces experienced during aborted take-off and/or emergency landing’. The installation must be made through a supplemental type certificate approval process.
Along with other requirements are stipulations regarding traction and infusion: “Dead weights used on [the] ground for traction purposes shall be replaced with spring-type devices. Infusion devices, if used onboard the aircraft, shall be automated and designed not to be dependent on gravitational flows.”
The DGCA also describes necessary features of the aircraft used to transport patients, saying that fixed-wing aircraft doors should allow the patient to be loaded without a rotation of more than 30° roll or 45° pitch; helicopter door size ‘should be sufficient for smooth entrance of a patient lying on a stretcher’. Vertical head space must exist above the head of the stretcher (on fixed-wing aircraft this must measure at least 30 inches or 76 cm), ‘with sufficient attendant access without obstruction’.
The requirements for medical personnel include that they must have a minimum of two years’ experience in critical care. At least one of the medical crew must have undergone training in aviation medicine. Furthermore, the medical personnel ‘must be familiar with the meteorological weather conditions, precautions to be observed during emergency landing or ditching, patient evacuation, turbulence problems with patient seat belt and traction devices, effects of noise and vibration on the ill or injured, etc.’. The document does not specify what might be covered under ‘etc.’, leaving this open to speculation.