Evans and other emergency response pilots are used to factoring California Wind, fog and smoke from the wildfires influence their flight decisions. But extreme heat, like the intense wave currently blanketing the West, affects how well rescue helicopters can carry out their missions.
High temperatures, which are rising due to human-caused climate change, are altering operations across large swaths of the state. REACH Air Medical Services, which operates 30 helicopter bases across California, turned away at least two rescue calls over the weekend due to excessive heat, said Vicky Spediacci, the company’s chief operating officer. “It’s pretty rare. There can be isolated cases, but it was more widespread,” she said.
The company sometimes changes its route in warm weather to land at an airport, where there are fewer obstacles, rather than on site. Landing in a confined area can require more engine power, which is more difficult in warm weather, said Spediacci, who was a pilot for 40 years.
The heat is hampering efforts to transport patients and conduct rescues in the region’s national parks, places that rely on helicopters amid vast wilderness. When hikers get lost or stranded on remote trails, helicopters are sometimes dispatched to locate and rescue them.
National parks including Joshua Tree and Death Valley are warning visitors that a helicopter may not be able to reach ambitious hikers in extreme heat, park rangers said. When temperatures exceed 50 degrees Celsius — which has already happened this year in parts of California, including Death Valley — medical helicopters often cannot fly.
A helicopter was unable to reach the scene of a rescue operation in Death Valley this weekend because of the heat, authorities said. Six motorcyclists were riding together in the park. One person died of heat exposure, another was “treated for severe heat illness” and taken to a hospital, and four were treated at the scene and released, authorities said.
“Due to the high temperatures, emergency medical flight helicopters were unable to respond, as they typically cannot safely fly above 120 degrees,” a press release said, noting that it was 128 degrees that day.
Death Valley Park Ranger Nichole Andler said in an interview Tuesday that the person who died was pronounced dead at the scene. Rangers called a helicopter for the critically injured person, but it declined to come because it was too hot, she said. The injured person was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Pahrump, Nev., and then to Las Vegas, she said. His condition is unknown.
Andler told The Washington Post earlier this month that the park gets one to three requests a month for air ambulances during the summer to get people to medical care. Sometimes, patients are taken by ambulance to higher, cooler elevations, where a helicopter can safely take off and land.
“As temperatures get higher and higher, it becomes more difficult to help,” Andler said.
At Joshua Tree, the national park in Southern California known for its spectacular desert landscapes, helicopter rescues can occur three to five times a year, said Anna Marini, a park ranger. The park saw temperatures exceeding 43 degrees throughout the weekend.
A few weeks ago, Marini said the park called in a helicopter to rescue a hiker who was suffering from heatstroke off the trail in the middle of the afternoon. The terrain was not flat or easily accessible by vehicle, and it was cool enough that the person had to be rescued by helicopter. But in warmer weather, such rescues may not be possible, she said.
“The intense heat creates a lot more stress on the helicopters,” Marini noted. “That could affect our operations.”
When it’s hot, the air is thin, which means helicopter blades have less air to grab. This affects their ability to take off and navigate. Systems on board can overheat and stop working. Pilots must adjust weight, equipment and route planning, or they may be forced to refuse to take off altogether.
When Evans, who works for Stanford Life Flight, Stanford University Hospital’s helicopter medical response program, checked the conditions Sunday, he knew the helicopter’s engine, radio and computers were at risk of malfunctioning.
“It’s something we’re going to have to be more attentive to now,” Evans said. “I see it getting better and I expect it to get worse,” he said.
Around 5:30 p.m., a Redding crew that had initially declined the call because of the heat decided it was cool enough to transport the patient, said Michael Baulch, manager of the Stanford Life Flight program. They arrived at Stanford around 8 p.m., but lost crucial hours waiting for the weather to cool down, he said.
As of Tuesday, Baulch said, the patient was in stable condition.
The Airbus EC-145 used by Stanford is prepared for many missions. It can transport newborns from one facility to another; it can fly patients to more advanced operating rooms across the state while their chests are being opened in the middle of heart surgery; it can avoid rush-hour traffic and arrive at the scene of a car accident well before an ambulance.
“When it’s this hot, we can’t lift as much weight,” Baulch said. “We either have to leave people behind or equipment behind.”
The unit, which has been around for 40 years and operates as far south as Santa Barbara and as far east as Reno, Nev., performs about 480 medical transports each year. About 30 percent of those transports are responses to 911 emergency calls.
Deep in the basement of Stanford Hospital, a control room with about six employees and at least 20 monitors operates 24 hours a day, fielding calls and requests for air medical assistance. When a call comes in, the control center radios the pilot and asks if the weather is good to fly.
“We will not disclose details of the case to the pilot to avoid any bias,” Baulch said.
If the flight is approved, the nurses and the pilot on duty put on their thick fireproof suits and board the helicopter.
On a flight over the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Stanford team was feeling the heat. The temperature hovered around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, but the helicopter remained in the sun while the crew trained local firefighters and park rangers on how to assist the crew in a rescue.
The engine was about as hot as it could be safely, said Evans, the pilot.
The impenetrable brown overalls covered the crew’s legs and arms. The sun shone through the cockpit window on a cloudless Saturday, while the air conditioning vents let out faint drafts.
The flight lasted only five minutes, but upon landing, the staff shed their layers of clothing and grabbed bottles of cold water and frozen treats they keep on base. Their trips can last up to two hours.
“We basically just sit there and roast,” said Kent Cramer, one of the flight nurses, as he sucked on a lime green popsicle.
Kevin So, another medic, pulled out a large turquoise contraption that the crew affectionately calls “the snorkel.” A hose is attached to the box and blows cold air into the cockpit as it rests on the tarmac.
Sometimes Evans flies to higher altitudes to cool the helicopter, but often, going higher means less oxygen for an already distressed patient.
Even below the 122-degree limit, high temperatures affect the team’s operations. “Above 104 degrees, we can only operate on the ground for 15 minutes,” Evans said.
Evans knew early on that he wanted to be a pilot. He started flying small planes, but he realized that it was more fun to be able to move sideways and backwards, glide and fly through trees. The fact that he flies to save lives only makes his job more rewarding.
His favorite missions are those that involve obstacles: landing on bridges or beaches, piloting a helicopter in the middle of a city.
But the heat was an obstacle he didn’t see coming, one he said would make his job more difficult if he had to turn down more flights.
“That’s the hardest part of the job,” he said: “saying no.”
News Source : www.washingtonpost.com
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