A Pivotal eVTOL aircraft has been used to respond to two live 911 emergency calls in Hyde County, North Carolina, with a flight-trained paramedic reaching one patient approximately 20 minutes before a ground ambulance, according to Pivotal.
The operations involved a paramedic piloting the aircraft directly to GPS coordinates near each emergency scene and beginning Advanced Life Support (ALS) before ground crews arrived. Pivotal said the aircraft was operated under a Public Aircraft Operation (PAO).
The missions follow a proof-of-concept programme launched by Pivotal, Hyde County Emergency Services and Code Blue Resources earlier this year to evaluate the use of light eVTOL aircraft for emergency medical response. The programme agreement identified Pivotal’s Helix aircraft as the platform and the aviation-response paramedic as both pilot and medical provider.
Pivotal said the two live missions are the first deployment of an eVTOL aircraft as part of routine emergency medical response in the USA. Independent reporting by Axios also described the Hyde County operation as the first live US emergency use of an eVTOL, with the aircraft reaching a patient around 20 minutes before the ground ambulance.
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(Image: Pivotal)