In the winter, when ambulances start queuing up again on the runway of the Kranebitten airport in Innsbruck, it doesn’t mean that a disaster has occurred. Instead, it is simply the beginning of boarding for one of aviation’s most unusual scheduled services, the “plaster bomber.” Operated by Tyrol Air Ambulance (TAA) several times a week, the service brings injured skiers back home from the Alps quickly, comfortably and with all the medical care they need. Most stops are in the Benelux region, but Scandinavia is also a regular destination. Year round, the transports also make several stops around the Mediterranean to pick up beach vacationers and take them back to northern and central Europe.
In its standard passenger version, as used by TAA parent company Welcome Air, the Dornier 328 turboprop aircraft seats 31 passengers. When used as an air ambulance, its capacity depends on how much space the patients on a particular trip require. The seating is individually configured by the maintenance team prior to each flight, and includes both stretcher berths and normal aircraft seats with leg rests. Composition of the crew and the medical facilities on board also vary according to the individual requirement. If required, the Dornier can even be used as a flying intensive care unit with six beds.
The success of the TAA transports lies in their superlative medical standards and a great deal of planning expertise, explains TAA CEO Manfred Helldoppler: “We offer the insurance companies who most often bear the transport costs a unique and affordable product. This regularly puts us at the forefront of the competition even in ratings within the sector.”
Tyrol Air AmbulanceWithin a few hours, the cabins of TAA aircraft can be converted into flying intensive care units. The fleet includes a Golfstream 100, a Dornier Do328 with turboprop engines and a Cessna Citation Bravo with jet engines by Pratt & Whitney Canada. The aircraft are frequently used in the Alps, from where vacationers who have had accidents are flown to their northern European home countries.
Ready for takeoff within two hours
What’s more, Tyrol Air Ambulance’s service extends well beyond the “plaster bomber.” Ever since its foundation in 1976, it has also offered ambulance flights using a growing fleet of specially modified business jets. In order to transport one or two patients, often when intensive medical care is involved or a pickup far from the big tourist destinations, TAA deploys three Gulfstream 100 aircraft and a Cessna Citation Bravo. Patients and their relatives can reach the Medical Assistance team 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. First, the team get a comprehensive medical picture, coordinating the exchange of information between caregivers on location, relatives and the insurer’s medical service. If transportation home gets the go-ahead, the flight is ready for takeoff within two hours. In that time, the TAA specialists on the ground must scramble the jet, crew and medical team, obtain all the necessary diplomatic and landing clearances and wrap up all the associated ground operations. In the case of unusually long journeys, this can occasionally take slightly longer due to the approvals involved.
Pros on board Tyrol Air Ambulance crews include not only pilots and flight attendants, but also medical professionals.
And yet, in spite of all the careful preparation by experienced medics and dispatchers, none of these flights can be said to be routine given the intensive care needs of severely injured patients. It can well happen that a patient’s condition deteriorates before the flight to the extent that they first have to be stabilized where they are. Only experienced emergency specialists familiar with the specific symptoms are allowed on board as doctors since, once the aircraft is in the air, they must take full responsibility for making the right decision. There are also particular challenges for the crew in the cockpit, for instance when the patient is suspected of having a severe tracheal injury and must be flown at low altitude.
“For us, no two missions are the same, even when it’s meant to be a routine transport,” says CEO Helldoppler as he describes the particular challenges faced by his airline. “Ensuring that everything runs smoothly requires a lot of experience and great flexibility from the whole team—both on the ground and in the air.” He says that the work is unusually varied and fulfilling, which is why “so many of our roughly 100 full-time employees and the experienced medical professionals in our 70-strong pool of doctors and nurses have been with us for such a long time.”
Almost 100 percent availability
Doing an important job in the wings is the technology and maintenance team, whose task goes beyond turning business jets and regional aircraft into flying intensive care units. Maintenance also brings with it its own demands, as TAA Director Technical Operations, Johan Schot, explains. “At first glance it no doubt seems strange that an operator of our size undertakes nearly all of the maintenance work on the aircraft itself. However, we’re not a normal airline. The on-board equipment alone sets our aircraft apart from traditional regional and business aircraft.” The team works on short notice and has to guarantee almost 100 percent availability of the whole fleet. “On top of that, our jets amass many times the flight hours that is normal for aircraft of this type.”
“Ensuring that everything runs smoothly requires a lot of experience and great flexibility from the whole team—both on the ground and in the air.“
There are, then, high demands when it comes to flexibility and service capability, and the same is expected of engine repair and maintenance. For 15 years now, TAA has entrusted the maintenance of the Pratt & Whitney Canada engines of its Dornier 328 and Cessna Citation Bravo aircraft to the Customer Service Centre Europe (CSC). “By doing this, we gain access to an extremely extensive global OEM service network and lease engines at short notice, together with quickly deployable mobile repair teams—which is a lot like our own setup,” says Schot as he describes the advantages of the long-standing collaboration.