06-26-2017, 09:41 AM
(06-26-2017, 09:22 AM)SammyOES2 Wrote: "Hospital officials said Friday that will add 15 to 20 minutes to the trip but should not affect patient care."
Quotes like this drive me crazy. It seems highly unlikely to be true, but even if it is true (say super-urgent cases are already by-passing Kitchener for a bigger trauma center in another city), nobody is going to believe it unless you add some more details.
It is mentioned in the article:
"Critically injured patients most often are transported directly from the scene by helicopter to Toronto."
But it could be more explicit.
I am surprised that the crane is a problem. I mean, I understand it is in the current flight path, but these helicopters are able to land at the scene of serious incidents, which are likely to have navigate around similar obstructions, I am sure they can do it here, and as the article states, even did do so the first time. I'm not a helicopter pilot, but I'm guessing this is more of a "risk management" strategy than an actual problem, basically, they're unwilling to make more difficult and riskier landings when there is a nearby airport available, and as soon as they get a different flightpath approved, they'll resume using the helipad.
I am a bit surprised that there was no lighting though, if the landing had been at night, it could possibly have been disastrous if they had not seen the crane.