Babcock Scandinavian AirAmbulance has taken delivery of an aeromedical Cessna Citation Latitude in emergency response livery. It is the first aeromedical application of the Latitude and the aircraft will be based in Oslo, Norway, serving the entire country.

Designed to comfortably manage trips to patients on the remote island of Svalbard, the Latitude has a wide loading door and a stretcher that is wider and longer than its predecessors.

“Our challenge in today’s world is to take care of the heaviest patients,” comments chief flight nurse and COO Agneta Karlfeldt. “Nowadays in an aircraft you have the use of everything that you have in an ICU ward. This stretcher is 195 cm by 60 cm, the others are 180 by 50.

“It is really difficult today to handle 160 kg patients in a Beech 250. A lot of aircraft have a door that is only 55 or 60 cms wide, and we needed one that is at least 65, and the Latitude is 73. We need to fit in everyone.

“We have a system where we can connect brackets between our platform to helicopters, ground ambulance and so on, all the equipment fits between the line, so you don’t have to disconnect the patient, you can just disconnect the power and move on to the next mode of transportation. We are now able to have the latest technology onboard, whereas previously the technology in flight was always behind the technology in a hospital.”

Each flight nurse tends to do 75 missions by herself per year. There are five seats on board, so 25 missions are carried out with the doctors and incubator team. Sometimes a full crew of five is required for the larger patients, as well as a number of specialists when picking up. “The Beech can be airborne for five hours and it takes two hours 50 to get to Svalbard, so you don’t have much time to spare when you need to land,” continues Karlfeldt. “The Latitude makes these trips far easier.”

VP of special missions at Textron, Doug May, says that the OEM considers all mission profiles when designing its latest jets, including the Latitude and Longitude. “We have aircraft that will be able to change configuration, but this one will be dedicated to aeromedical missions. Babcock has been involved with the design and aeromedical installation. Agneta has been involved very heavily to make sure that the voice of the customer was taken into account and that the special needs for the flight doctors and flight nurses were all accounted for.

“We are involved in a number of conversations on the European continent about the Latitude, aeromedical being one of them. The type has been well-received in the market without a doubt. It has been the most widely-delivered aircraft in its class since its inception.

“Textron is uniquely positioned to integrate medical capability across a wide variety of platforms, everything from the 172 to the Latitude to the Longitude as well.”

Specialised training will now take place to get Babcock staff up to speed on the Latitude. “After Agneta took delivery of the aircraft, she has been active in training flight nurses and flight doctors to be able to interface with the specialised equipment on the aircraft, including sealed floors and a sealed cabin, through to electrical capability and oxygen capability,” adds May. “What stands out is the LifePort installation, easily mounted in the right location so that it becomes accessible for flight crew during flight.

“For those minutes or hours that they are in transit, they can be thousands of miles away from the nearest hospital. This aircraft buys them time, because it has all of the equipment that the hospital has, taken to the patient.”