Will Fly EMS Missions For Air Ambulance Victoria

Six AW139 intermediate twin-engine helicopters will be operated for Ambulance Victoria under a 10 year agreement to perform Emergency Medical Service (EMS) missions. A contract for the aircraft was signed recently by AgustaWestland and Australian Helicopters.

The aircraft, which are expected to enter service in January 2016, will be based at Essendon, Bendigo, Latrobe Valley and Warrnambool airports. The new fleet will replace Ambulance Victoria’s present five helicopters and includes a dedicated back-up aircraft to maintain services when heavy aircraft maintenance is required.

The AW139 is a new generation helicopter designed with inherent multi-role capability and flexibility of operation. The new technology Honeywell Primus Epic fully integrated avionics package, a 4-axis digital AFCS and large flat panel color displays in the cockpit, reduce pilot workload and allow the crew to concentrate on the demanding missions they are often tasked to perform.

AgustaWestland says the AW139 has become the benchmark intermediate twin-engine helicopter with orders for more than 770 helicopters having been placed by over 200 commercial and government customers in over 60 countries. The AW139 performs a wide range of roles including search and rescue, emergency medical services, offshore transport, VIP/corporate transport, law enforcement, homeland security and utility. Particularly, the AW139 has rapidly become the intermediate twin-engine helicopter of choice for search and rescue and Emergency Medical Service missions having already been selected by customers in Asia, Middle East, Europe, North America, Australasia and Africa.

AgustaWestland has provided helicopters to both commercial and government customers in Australia and New Zealand. In total, over 50 AgustaWestland helicopters are currently in service in the region.

(Image provided by AgustaWestland)

FMI: www.agustawestland.com