„Did you hear about the brand new helicopter that came today from the factory in Italy? How many owners did it belong to before? The registration number of the aircraft is identical for each machine – just like the registration number of passenger cars…“
This was commented by Mayor of the village of Svetlina Ivan Airyanov on Facebook. According to him, this is „apparently another theft from a public procurement“ and „has been somewhere, but apparently only for the equipment to become an air ambulance.“
On this occasion, an Iskra.bg journalist asked Minister of Transport and Communications, Georgi Gvozdeykov, for a comment. He declared these claims to be nonsense and explained:
„These are test temporary registrations that the plant uses for their manufactured helicopters! Naturally, dozens of helicopters have been tested with this registration! And that’s why every aircraft has an MSN (Serial number).“
Against this background, the first medical helicopter for emergency air assistance, which arrived in Bulgaria yesterday, will be officially presented today. It is located at the airbase of the Border Police in the Vrazhdebna district of the capital.
The machine is part of the newly developed HEMS Air Emergency Response System. It is made in Italy and is branded with the Bulgarian flag. Its participation in rescue missions is scheduled to start this month. HEMS will employ 36 pilots, 6 of whom have been trained in Italy. There are also over 90 medics trained to provide air support.
In the first year, the machine is supposed to fly only in daylight or 30 minutes before sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise – this is the requirement of the European Aviation Regulation.
The helicopter will also be used in a donor situation, to transport teams of national or republican consultants to the relevant medical facilities in our country, as well as to transport blood products in emergency situations. It will not assist the Mountain Rescue Service with search, search and rescue. However, when a person injured in the mountains has to be transported, the machine will be able to perform these activities.
The range of the machine has a radius of about 200 km from the capital in a straight line. The machines are planned to be located in the country in such a way that at least 2 of them overlap each area of it.
