Hyde County Emergency Medical Services in rural North Carolina said flight-trained paramedic Quinn Reece used a Pivotal BlackFly electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft on two emergency response calls, carrying medical equipment and landing near the patients.
On one of the calls, Reece arrived about 20 minutes ahead of a ground ambulance and began providing advanced life support while other responders were still en route. Hyde County and its program partners describe the missions as the first use of an eVTOL aircraft for routine emergency medical response in the US.
The aircraft is not intended to replace ambulances or transport patients by air. Instead, it is used to get a paramedic and critical medical equipment to the scene faster, particularly in places where long distances can slow conventional emergency response. Hyde County covers nearly 1,500 square miles of land and water in eastern North Carolina.
Reece flew directly to GPS coordinates near the emergency scenes. Equipment carried aboard included a cardiac monitor, airway supplies and a primary response bag. Hyde County EMS Chief Brook Cox said the missions proved that distance can be overcome to reach patients sooner.
Hyde County EMS, Pivotal and emergency-services company Code Blue Resources developed procedures for using the aircraft on emergency calls over a number of months and completed more than 300 training exercises before beginning operational flights. Akute Networks also worked on the program as aviation program manager.
The BlackFly is a lightweight, single-seat electric aircraft that can take off and land vertically, allowing the paramedic to operate from locations where a conventional airplane or even a helicopter would not be practical. Pivotal has positioned the BlackFly and its newer Helix aircraft as personal electric aircraft rather than commercial air taxis.
