A medical transport aircraft with three crew members on board has gone lacking in Hawaii on a flight between Maui and the Big Island.
“Global Medical Response can confirm that one of our Hawaii Life Flight emergency fixed-wing airplanes based in Maui went off radar while en route to pick up a patient in Waimea, Big Island,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement on Friday.
The affected person was not on the aircraft, which misplaced radar contact about 9.30pm Thursday, it mentioned.
“We are in the process of reaching out to their families,” the assertion mentioned.
The firm can be helping search and rescue groups.
The Coast Guard mentioned plane controllers misplaced radar contact with the aircraft about 27 kilometres south of Hana, Maui, within the Maui Channel of the Pacific Ocean.
The Coast Guard says it’s looking out with boats, a helicopter and a cargo aircraft.
The guard mentioned one in all its plane noticed a sheen within the search space.
It additionally reported one in all its patrol boats recovered particles within the space but it surely mentioned there was no affirmation that it was from the lacking aircraft.
Global Medical Response mentioned it has briefly paused Hawaii Life Flight transports, prompting Governor Josh Green to situation an emergency proclamation permitting the state to complement Hawaii’s medical flight capability within the interim.
The proclamation permits the Hawaii National Guard to fly Blackhawk helicopters to move sufferers.
It may also enable AirMed International, a sister firm of Hawaii Life Flight, to carry a aircraft and crew members to Hawaii from the United States mainland.
Many hospitals on Hawaii’s extra rural islands are small and supply restricted medical companies in comparison with Honolulu’s bigger hospitals.
Patients with extra severe, pressing circumstances typically have to be transported to Oahu for care.
Green, a doctor who labored as an emergency room physician on the Big Island earlier than turning into governor this month, spoke from private expertise concerning the significance of the flights.
“I’m very familiar with this having for decades cared for patients and relied on this extraordinary service when someone’s had a big heart attack or there’s been a terrible accident,” he mentioned at a news convention.
He mentioned sometimes 10 to fifteen sufferers a day are transferred between islands.
