A paramedic in rural North Carolina has flown a single-seat electric aircraft to real 911 calls, reaching one patient about 20 minutes before a ground ambulance arrived.
Hyde County Emergency Medical Services 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 well ahead of the ambulance and began providing advanced life support while other responders were still en route. The missions are being described by Hyde County and its program partners as the first use of an eVTOL aircraft for routine emergency medical response in the US.
The idea is not to replace an ambulance or transport patients by air. Instead, the aircraft 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.
That is a significant problem in Hyde County, which covers nearly 1,500 square miles of land and water in eastern North Carolina.
For the missions, Reece flew directly to GPS coordinates near the emergency scenes. The equipment carried aboard the aircraft included a cardiac monitor, airway supplies and a primary response bag.
“Every decision we make is about getting advanced care to our citizens faster,” Hyde County EMS Chief Brook Cox said. “These missions proved that we can overcome distance, reach patients sooner, and redefine emergency response in rural communities.”
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 very different aircraft from the larger eVTOL air taxis being developed by companies such as Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation. It 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 in some cases, would not be practical.
Pivotal has positioned the BlackFly and its newer Helix aircraft as personal electric aircraft rather than commercial air taxis. Their small size and regulatory status have also allowed the company to put aircraft into real-world operations while larger passenger-carrying eVTOL developers continue working toward certification.