Flexibility in Action
When a tragic nightclub fire in Gothenburg, Sweden, resulted in the deaths of 63 young citizens in 1998, members of the Swedish government realized they had no way to quickly evacuate citizens in a mass emergency. Ambulances, buses, taxis and helicopters transported hundreds of injured to nearby hospitals, filling them to capacity. A new strategy was necessary. The events of Sept. 11, 2001, drove home the point.
Responding to a worldwide request for proposal, SAS Technical Services, a branch of Scandinavian Airlines System, devised a turnkey medical air transport system capable of providing intensive care service while flying patients out of the emergency area.
The SAS-designed and certified system converts a commercial Next-Generation 737 into a flying hospital and then returns it back to commercial configuration." Within six hours, airline seats are removed from their tracks and medical equipment is locked into place," said Sven Reiner, vice president, engineering services at SAS Technical Services. A fully equipped 737 is capable of treating and transporting up to six intensive care patients, six to 18 stretcher patients and 23 walking wounded or relatives along with a medical crew of 19.
The system is flexible and requires no structural modification. "You can install a few components on a BBJ or a helicopter or a complete system on a 737 jetliner," explains Reiner. "It was a challenge to find standard medical equipment that was lightweight and yet capable of meeting regulatory transport requirements," he said, but the SAS team did just that.
