Carilion Clinic Life Guard 10 - Non-injury incident

Date: August 29th 2008  

Program: Carilion Clinic Life Guard 10
	431 McClanahan Ave  
	Roanoke VA 24012 
	

Type: EC-135
Operator/Vendor: Air Methods

Weather: Clear. Not a factor

Team: Pilot, flight nurse, and flight paramedic. No injuries reported. No patient. 

Description: 
	At 1524hrs, Carilion Clinic Life-Guard 10 lifted on a 20 minute flight
	for a scene mission. Fourteen minutes into the medical flight crew
	reported an odor of something burning in the medical treatment area. 
	Shortly after the report from the medical crew, the pilot and second
	medical crew member smelled the odor in the cockpit. There was no
	visible smoke inside the aircraft.  The pilot executed a precautionary
	landing on a paved private airstrip in their immediate vicinity.   
	The Communications Center activated the PAIP and the Air Medical
	Emergency Incident Command System (AMEICS).  Contact was established
	with the flight team via cell phone upon landing.  The landing was
	made safely with no injury or damage to the aircraft.  Local county
	fire and rescue was contacted and placed on standby.  
	 
	Carilion Clinic Life-Guard 11 was dispatched to complete the mission
	and a Carilion Clinic Patient Transportation ground ambulance was
	dispatched to support Carilion Clinic Life-Guard 10.   At the same
	time there was a third medevac unit in the area on an unrelated
	response.  Communications were established and all three aircraft were
	made aware of each others' situation and locations.  The LG10
	helicopter lifted and returned to their ground base and landed without
	incident or reproducing the odor.  Upon additional inspection of the
	aircraft, there was no evidence of damage and the condition was not
	repeated.  Aircraft was placed back in service. 
	  
	Upon debriefing, the following areas were reviewed & emphasized: 
	- Upon landing, medical flight crew exit the aircraft with fire
	extinguishers, if possible. 
	- Mechanic response to the aircraft and clearing the aircraft is
	completed on the scene. 
	- PAIP and AMEICS system worked well and should be maintained for any
	PAIP incident.  http://www.ameics.org/.
	- Contact with the AirMethods Operational Control Center was swift
	and completed as planned. 
	
	Susan Smith, Director 
	Paul Davenport, Senior Director 
	

Source: Kevin W. Peters, Safety and Compliance Officer

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The CONCERN network shares verified information to alert medical transport
programs when an accident / incident has occurred. Please share the above
information with your program staff. If you have further questions, please
contact the CONCERN Coordinator, David Kearns at 800 525 3712 or email:
coordinator@concern-network.org.

Copyright 2007 ASTNA