Helicopter unable to land: an unexpected consequence of climate change?

[Busaholic]

In my immediate area, people were saddened to learn of the sudden death of a well-regarded shopkeeper, who went home last Friday and, shortly after, was found in her flat on her bed apparently dead having choked on something.

Her heart was restarted after a time, and the two ambulance crews had arranged for the air ambulance to take her the 20 odd miles to the local hospital, and I saw it flying overhead seeking somewhere to land.

Unfortunately, the wind was too strong for it to land, and it was a third land ambulance that eventually took her to hospital, but it was all too late.

No-one at present can say whether the shorter hospital journey might have saved her, but it struck me, not for the first time, that the strength of winds now being experienced as a regular occurrence down here in West Cornwall throughout the year are impinging on everyday life in ways previously unthought of.

My wife, too, had an air ambulance called for her about three years ago, in fine, apparently calm, weather, only for it not to be able to take off because the wind at the hospital in Truro was strong enough to prevent it landing there.

Fortunately for her, it made no vital difference, but it all added to the stress.

These are relatively new air ambulances, having to be funded by local charitable fundraising, and I expect the extra cost of a more weather-resilient chopper would be great, and possibly make it slightly slower in the air.

On the other hand, can we afford for such a necessary service not to be available on such a regular basis?

 

[Mojo]

On the other hand, can we afford for such a necessary service not to be available on such a regular basis?

This might not answer your main question, but it’s worth pointing out that many air ambulances and Hems (Helicopter emergency medical services) do not operate during the hours of darkness at all, which I would not hesitate to say occurs more frequently than wind and isn’t something really affected by climate change!

During winter when the sun sets at 4pm, this can include quite a key part of the day! London Air Ambulance operates with cars during darkness, some Air Ambulances that don’t serve predominantly urban areas have trained their pilots and purchased equipment to enable them to operate in darkness, but this is not wholesale. Also will mention that many, even ones with this equipment, or with response cars as an alternative, don’t operate overnight at all. Looking at the service you refer to in Cornwall, they have only recently got the ability to fly in darkness, but still regarding that are only operational for twelve hours a day.

 

[Kingspanner]

There is also the question of affordability - night coverage costs money, however the Great North Air Ambulance based on Teesside appears to be ramping up to launch expanded 24 hour cover.

 

[underbank]

Or we could get back to having more local hospitals with A&E facilities to avoid such long journeys and get back to transporting by road??

There was a time our town had a "casualty" dept - now we don't even have a hospital - it was closed down about 20 years ago (Under Labour, so nothing to do with austerity!!). That means a trip of 25 miles to the "nearest" hospital with proper A&E facilities, so a 30-45 minute drive in an ambulance.

 

[Enthusiast]

Didn't we have windy weather before Climate Change came along?

 

[hexagon789]

Or we could get back to having more local hospitals with A&E facilities to avoid such long journeys and get back to transporting by road??

Definitely, I agree with this very much. A&E departments are being centred on specific hospitals and others downgraded. Provision for an A&E department could've been made when they built the new version of my nearest hospital but it wasn't, and the nearest one with an A&E is out past Govan

 

[scotrail158713]

Didn't we have windy weather before Climate Change came along?

But was it as frequent?

 

[Darandio]

But was it as frequent?

I believe so yes, but not normally at this time of year. There also weren't names involved so 99% of them passed without a thought.

 

[underbank]

But was it as frequent?

From what I can remember, there have certainly been numerous floods at Ironbridge. I remember going to a museum on the river bank which had a series of "high water" markers on one of it's walls which showed dates and heights of previous floods - some several feet high. The building was some kind of mill/factory so probably dating from the 1800s.

edit: found a couple of pictures on on the museum's web site - interior shot showing the marks and external shot showing how high the room is from normal water levels - so the water reached almost to the top of the arched window seen from outside - maybe 10-20 feet above normal river levels. You can also see just how many times the river had flooded the building by all the marks. So maybe flooding hasn't happened too often recently, but go back a couple of hundred years and it's been pretty often over that time - 14 in total.

Highest 5 floods: 1795, 1946, 1852, 1947, 1881

Interestly, a fews times it flooded and flooded again close after, i.e. 1946 & 1947 and 1877, 1879 & 1881, 1923, 1925 & 1929, and then periods of many decades without a flood.

Credits - https://www.ironbridge.org.uk/explore/museum-of-the-gorge/

 

[Esker-pades]

I'm not sure this is evidence of climate change.

 

[edwin_m]

In past years we may have had winds, but helicopter air ambulances haven't existed until the last couple of decades, so we can't say whether they would have been equally disrupted before that.

Anecdotally I feel there has been more wind and flood damage in the last decade than in decades back to the 1970s that I am old enough to remember, although snow disruption was possibly worse back then. The effect has been amplified by factors such as more housing on floodplains, higher expectations of a comfortable life and the ubiquity of information meaning that incidents that would only have been known locally are now widely publicised.

However, scientists do provide statistics that suggest that our weather is getting more extreme, and to the conspiracy theorists I'd say those scientists have much less reason to lie than the deniers who often turn out to be in the pockets of vested interests. Although there is some chance it's all a giant coincidence I don't think it's either credible to believe that or wise to use any doubt as a reason to carry on as before.

 

[ninja-lewis]

Definitely, I agree with this very much. A&E departments are being centred on specific hospitals and others downgraded. Provision for an A&E department could've been made when they built the new version of my nearest hospital but it wasn't, and the nearest one with an A&E is out past Govan

It's not just an A&E department though. It's the diagnostic and specialty services that contribute to specialty care. Without them the A&E department is little more than a minor injuries unit anyway. Delays caused by taking patients to the nearest hospital and then subsequently transferring them to specialist centres are much greater and more harmful than a longer initial journey direct to the specialty centre.

Even in a world of unlimited money you couldn't have these services in every local hospital. Medical research has shown that minimum team sizes and minimum case loads are essential to an effective service. It's better to centralise staff and patients than to diffuse them across all over the country.

https://services.nhslothian.scot/MajorTraumaService/Pages/Major-Trauma-Centre.asp

 

[edwin_m]

The other issue here is that paramedics are better trained and ambulances better equipped than they were a few decades ago, because they recognize the importance of giving treatment in the "golden hour" after an accident, rather than the old approach of giving minimal treatment and getting to hospital as quickly as possible. The flipside is the trend for A&E to be concentrated in major centres where there is enough throughput for the staff to be experienced in all types of casualty.

 

[Busaholic]

This might not answer your main question, but it’s worth pointing out that many air ambulances and Hems (Helicopter emergency medical services) do not operate during the hours of darkness at all, which I would not hesitate to say occurs more frequently than wind and isn’t something really affected by climate change!

During winter when the sun sets at 4pm, this can include quite a key part of the day! London Air Ambulance operates with cars during darkness, some Air Ambulances that don’t serve predominantly urban areas have trained their pilots and purchased equipment to enable them to operate in darkness, but this is not wholesale. Also will mention that many, even ones with this equipment, or with response cars as an alternative, don’t operate overnight at all. Looking at the service you refer to in Cornwall, they have only recently got the ability to fly in darkness, but still regarding that are only operational for twelve hours a day.

They raised the money through donations to buy helicopters that could operate in darkness, then for months afterwards had to wait for the relevant NHS departments to make the landing strips at DerrIford Hospital, Plymouth (in particular) and, to a lesser extent, the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, be equipped to receive them i.e. provision of the necessary lighting. There used only to be the one Air Ambulance in Cornwall, the second helped to add to the operating hours, though only one is available in evenings generally speaking, I understand. Now the money is raised for another helicopter, but I've no idea whether it's an addition or a replacement.

 

[richw]

They raised the money through donations to buy helicopters that could operate in darkness, then for months afterwards had to wait for the relevant NHS departments to make the landing strips at DerrIford Hospital, Plymouth (in particular) and, to a lesser extent, the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, be equipped to receive them i.e. provision of the necessary lighting. There used only to be the one Air Ambulance in Cornwall, the second helped to add to the operating hours, though only one is available in evenings generally speaking, I understand. Now the money is raised for another helicopter, but I've no idea whether it's an addition or a replacement.

I understood it to be an additional, and it’s more heavy weight weather resistant. We’re lucky here to have the coastguard chopper which they will draft in to assist if the weather is too bad and it’s a necessity,

 

[Busaholic]

Didn't we have windy weather before Climate Change came along?

Of course, but the frequency and duration of this has extended so that there is no longer a time of year when such events are rare, in the part of the world I live in, anyway.

I live such an exciting life that I'm almost invariably home at 12.45 a.m. listening to the Shipping Forecast on Radio Four, which always starts with 'There are warnings of gales in Sea Areas....' and goes on to list them all.

However, to no doubt save time and stop the bulletin crashing into the National Anthem just before 1 a.m. which heralds the handover to the World Service, these days you're more likely to hear e.g. 'There are warnings of gales in all areas except Trafalgar' which was last night's preamble.

Gales are precisely defined by the Met Office, and I don't believe these have changed little over decades.

• Force 8 = gale
  
• Force 9 = severe gale
  
• Force 10 = storm
  
• Force 11 = violent storm
  
• Force 12 = hurricane

and this level is predicted in one sea area or another several times in a year these days, occasionally two or three days running.

It is certainly my impression that, in other than what you might call the Eastern Seaboard, and going clockwise from the north of Scotland, when you get to Portland and then up the Irish Sea and so on back to the north tip of Scotland the incidence of gale force winds predicted (and which almost invariably follow) has grown considerably over the thirty years I've been here.

Also, Penzance Promenade gets closed to traffic because of overtopping by the sea, which impinges on me personally, especially now I'm disabled, and everyone down here now gets used to its now regular occurrence.

 

[HSTEd]

Perhaps the air ambulance role should be turned over to the RAF, who have obviously got a lot of experience in flying in darkness and adverse conditions.

But I imagine that would cost rather more than the current solution, even though we would get more for our money.

 

[AM9]

Perhaps the air ambulance role should be turned over to the RAF, who have obviously got a lot of experience in flying in darkness and adverse conditions.

But I imagine that would cost rather more than the current solution, even though we would get more for our money.

It depends of the difference in actual performance a more costly service might bring and whether there is the will to pay for it. There are probably more pressing needs on the budget that government has decided to give the NHS, and if the number of lives saved by other NHS services is greater then surely attention should be focused on them, - a sort of BCR.
To make it clear, I am a perpetual contributor to the upkeep of the Herts & Essex Air Ambulance Service.

 

[edwin_m]

Perhaps the air ambulance role should be turned over to the RAF, who have obviously got a lot of experience in flying in darkness and adverse conditions.

But I imagine that would cost rather more than the current solution, even though we would get more for our money.

What that calculation would miss is that the RAF crews would get experience by carrying out these and air-sea rescue jobs, and without that they are probably doing similar flights anyway to maintain their competence.

 

[Kingspanner]

What it also misses is that civil pilots are covered by Civil Aviation Authority rules which restricts their flying in bad weather according to set criteria. Military pilots have more scope to apply their own discretion.
When the government gave the air-sea rescue contract to Bristow http://bristowgroup.com/uk-sar/ it was to retire life-expired Sea-Kings, relieve the RAF and Navy of duties they did not need because of experience overseas, and at the same time provide greater capability and range through new helicopters.
Shame about the flight rules though.

 

[richw]

When the government gave the air-sea rescue contract to Bristow http://bristowgroup.com/uk-sar/ it was to retire life-expired Sea-Kings, relieve the RAF and Navy of duties they did not need because of experience overseas, and at the same time provide greater capability and range through new helicopters.

the one in Cornwall seems to fly in all weathers. I’m sure I read they sub contracted the piloting to the RAF?

 

[DarloRich]

Perhaps the air ambulance role should be turned over to the RAF, who have obviously got a lot of experience in flying in darkness and adverse conditions.

But I imagine that would cost rather more than the current solution, even though we would get more for our money.

or, perhaps, could it be that many of the air ambulance pilots are ex forces? I know one who is ex navy and flies an air ambulance. He says having landed on a carrier, in the dark in a storm, in the Atlantic, short on fuel and not really able to see he will land in most places and I tend to agree!

Wind is always going to be a problem for flying as is something like fog.

 

[HSTEd]

What that calculation would miss is that the RAF crews would get experience by carrying out these and air-sea rescue jobs, and without that they are probably doing similar flights anyway to maintain their competence.

Air Sea rescue was privatised several years ago.

The military training angle has long since been abandoned as a factor in the calculation.

 

[221129]

the one in Cornwall seems to fly in all weathers. I’m sure I read they sub contracted the piloting to the RAF?

The UK military has no part in the Bristow Helicopter SAR contract.

 

[richw]

The UK military has no part in the Bristow Helicopter SAR contract.

sorry just reviewed the information and the one in these parts has 2 ex RAF pilots as leads

 

[Mojo]

Perhaps the air ambulance role should be turned over to the RAF, who have obviously got a lot of experience in flying in darkness and adverse conditions.

But I imagine that would cost rather more than the current solution, even though we would get more for our money.

Military aid to civil authorities is quite strictly limited under both legislation and government policy and cannot really be called upon for "business as usual," the exception being "niche capabilities, which MOD needs for its own purposes and which would not be efficient for the rest of government to generate independently, for example Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD)." Other than that they can only be used for emergencies, crises and events and this has to be authorised at ministerial level.

 

[HSTEd]

Military aid to civil authorities is quite strictly limited under both legislation and government policy and cannot really be called upon for "business as usual," the exception being "niche capabilities, which MOD needs for its own purposes and which would not be efficient for the rest of government to generate independently, for example Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD)." Other than that they can only be used for emergencies, crises and events and this has to be authorised at ministerial level.

Yes, but this is by the will of Parliament.
If it was the will of Parliament that Air Ambulance services be performed by the RAF, it would be so.

 

[Busaholic]

sorry just reviewed the information and the one in these parts has 2 ex RAF pilots as leads

It won't necessarily be the pilots that take the final decision. I only say this because when my wife got stretchered out to an ambulance, the paramedics told me they were only going to take her the mile or so to Penzance Cricket Club, which is the usual landing point in the area for the air ambulance, and the air ambulance was already there awaiting her. On my drive to the Royal Cornwall Hospital I was reassured to see the air ambulance go over my car on the A30 at Crowlas, but was a little surprised by its apparent slowness. When I got to the A&E and found my wife, thankfully now conscious and lucid, with the ambulance crew in the long queue to be processed, they told me that the strength of the wind at the hospital landing strip, communicated to the pilot by their control, meant they had said my wife could not be put on board, therefore the helicopter had to be recalled: whether it was permitted to land in the same conditions without a patient, I've no idea, and in view of the eventually happy outcome I've had no desire to pursue. Nevertheless, I've taken a keen interest in the air ambulance since, and will almost always donate to it in preference to other local charities.