www.uninews.com

HAL to hold national seminar on Air Ambulance

Bangalore, Sep 21 (UNI)

A two-day national seminar on Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) and Air Ambulance will take off at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd Management Academy (HMA) here from September 22.
Organised by the Rotary Wing Society of India (RWSI-Southern Region) and sponsored by HAL, the seminar would highlight the beneficial aspect of these services to the public.
National Disaster Management Authority member and IPS officer K M Singh would be the chief guest. Among the speakers who would make presentations are Mr Bill Bryant, President and Principal of Sierra Health Group, Dallas, USA and Maj Gen J K Bansal, VSM Head of NBC (Mitigation), DRDO. HAL Chairman Ashok K Baweja would chair the inaugural session, HAL said in a release here yesterday.
‘‘In the early days of military and civil air evacuation, the primary objective, with only a few exceptions, was to move the patient to a hospital quickly - within the golden hour. Today, while speed of transportation is still as important, air medical specialists provide advanced life support for the patient in-flight or at the scene of an accident. The system is approaching the capability of a hospital emergency facility,’’ Wg Cdr C D Upadhyay, HAL Chief Test Pilot and RWSI, Southern region, President said. 

                                           ***

'Independent safety boards needed in each country’

Bangalore, Sep 22 (UNI)

Speakers at a national seminar on Helicopter Emergency Medical Services and Air Ambulance today mooted the setting up of independent safety boards in each country, besides stressing the need for ensuring that accident findings are unbiased.
Speakers at the two-day seminar, organised by HAL and Rotary Wing Society of India (Southern wing) at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd Management Academy here from today, said helicopter operators, in tandem with the Civil Aviation Ministry, should undertake voluntary efforts to achieve their goal of reducing accident rate by 80 per cent in the next ten years.
They also demanded allocation of resoures for creation of data bank on flight safety aspects of civil registered helicopters to help evolve accident trend analysis to be more proactive with respect to accident prevention.
Calling for avoiding pressurising pilots to complete their mission under adverse conditions, they urged the pilots to be more open about reporting incidents.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Helicopter Division Executive Director K K Gupta said over 40 accidents had occurred in the last 15 years, most of which pertained to helicopters owned by State Governments and public sector undertakings, indicating lack of proper maintenance.