Air Ambulance Services of Norway is to offer an app for emergency medical services (EMS) and search-and-rescue operators to list landing zones, along with obstacle information, after having successfully used the tool as a shared database between EMS stakeholders in the country.
The government agency launched the €200,000 development after a fatal accident in January 2014. A wire strike killed two crew members and injured a third. As the helicopter was approaching the scene of an accident, a power line appeared on the crew’s map, but they could not distinguish it from another line, Roy Jenssen, rotary-wing operational advisor with Air Ambulance Services of Norway, recalled. The aircraft was on approach, so it was too slow for wire cutters to be effective, he said. Developing the app has answered recommendations in the final investigation report, Jenssen emphasized.
Through the app, the precise GPS coordinates are included for each landing zone. Various maps are available, such as a raster map, a vector map and a satellite view. The area can be sees in both day and night modes. To avoid clutter, some information – such as light poles – appears only when the aircraft is close enough to the ground.
Adding or modifying information, such as slightly moving a landing zone, is feasible, but has to go through an internal acceptance process. Adding an obstacle requires going through the obstacle database provider.
The “LZ North” app is available on tablets and smartphones, and is gradually being introduced on various operating systems. It now lists 500 landing sites. “We use it every day, in every mission,” Jenssen said. It is shared with medical dispatch centers so “we talk about the same places.” The database will next year be shared with ambulance vehicles on the ground, Jenssen added. It is being made available to all public services in Norway.
As a product, the app will be offered under the “LZ World” brand. Customers are expected to pay for the extra cost of mapping their country, but the Norwegian administration does not intend to make profit from the app. The cost is expected to be below €25,000 ($29,000). Jenssen suggested spending money on such an app is better than buying expensive equipment like Lidar-based obstacle detection systems.
