Rotary-winged rescuers: how Moscow emergency aviation is developing

Emergency aviation comes to the aid of firefighters and rescuers in complicated megalopolis conditions, among high-rise buildings and dense traffic.

 

Fast and easy to maneuver helicopters can arrive on the accident spot in a matter of minutes to help in fire suppression or rescuing. Today, there are dozens of highly qualified pilots, engineers and rescuers in the Moscow Aviation Centre (MAC).

This mos.ru.'s release is focusing on aircrafts at rescuers' disposal and hazards helicopter crews cope with in urban conditions.

Always on guard

The capital's fire and rescue aviation was born on 12 March, 1994, when Ka-32A firefighting helicopter showed its capabilities for the first time at a drill in Moscow. The Moscow Aviation Centre was established in 2003, and three firefighting helicopters — two Ka-32A and one Mi-26T were placed under its control.

Today, MAC helicopter fleet numbers 11 helicopters. Five of them, one heavy Mi-26T and four medium Ka-32A extinguish fires. Five more BK117 C-2 helicopters are used to transport victims to hospitals. And Bell-429 reconnaissance helicopter is designed to monitor and assess the situation.

Moscow's emergency aviation has been on round-the-clock duty since 2016. A team of rescuers is ready to fly to the scene at any minute: they always have five helicopters at their disposal.

One of them is a bright red firefighter Ka-32A11BC. It is in the service duty since April 2020. The helicopter passed its first "fire test" the same month in the settlement of Ryazanovskoye. A wooden structure and one-story building caught fire there. Yevgeny Artyukhin, commander of the first squadron of the capital's aviation center, was at the front seat then.

 

 

Red rescuer and its "gun"

The newest firefighting helicopter Ka-32A11BC was at the rescuers' disposal in 2020, and came on duty in January 2021.

 

 

In addition, this modification features an upgraded steering system and extended service life limit of 32,000 flight hours. Depending on the task, Ka-32A11BC can be equipped with a helibucket, that is filled within just 10 seconds and discharges up to five tons of water on fire, or with a direct deployment mechanism, i. e., fast-roping rescuers down from the helicopter.

This spring, one of the two new helicopters will be equipped with a special "gun", as pilots call it. It is a system of horizontal, vertical or lateral firefighting to be used with the start of stable above zero temperatures season. The “gun” hits the target by a powerful jet of water or foam and can quickly extinguish a fire at any altitude. The system is indispensable for suppressing fires in high-rise buildings, as well as outside fires.

The "gun" works like this: the helicopter uses a hose to take water from the nearest reservoir, then flies to the place of fire, hangs on at the desired point and the co-pilot feeds pure water or water mixed with a foaming agent into the barrel. For example, if the lateral firefighting system is applied, the airborne mechanic uses a manual flap to feed the fire extinguishing compound into the seat of fire, also controlling the water jet power and direction.

In 2012, the "gun" (installed on predecessor Ka-32A helicopter at that time) showed itself to the best advantage in eliminating the most complicated fire in Federation Tower of Moscow City Business Centre. This was for the first time in world practice that helicopters were used to extinguish fire at low temperatures and with very strong wind blowing.

Fire winners

Since 2003, the Moscow Aviation Center's firefighting helicopters put out over 200 fires. Two new aircraft alone took part in extinguishing 15 fires in Moscow and Moscow region during their service. Their maneuverability, power and reliability ensures extinguishing of both urban fires, such as the fire at a pyrotechnics warehouse in Luzhnetskaya Embankment, and wildfires, as was the case in Lukhovitsy, Krasnogorsk and Lyubertsy.

For fires affecting large areas, MAC uses the world's largest mass-produced Mi-26T helicopter. This giant can drop up to 15 tons of water on fire in just 15 seconds. The water covers a strip of land of about 13 by 330 meters, and just two Mi-26T's flights are sufficient to put out a fire larger than a soccer field.

Mi-26T took part in extinguishing lots of fires, including those in the building of Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, Serp&Molot plant and forest fires in 2010.

Resuscitation in the air

MAC aircraft fleet expanded in 2008: BK117C-2 air ambulance helicopters joined the service. Initially there were three of them, but today, MAC has five "beekays", as pilots lovingly call them. They were used for evacuation of the injured to Moscow hospitals since 2009 under an agreement with the Moscow Territorial Centre for Disaster Medicine.

 

With the accession of large TiNAD territory, emergency aviation received 21 helipads more (there are a total of 26 pads in Moscow). More helicopters joined the service and the list of tasks expanded — crews are evacuating patients with heart attacks and strokes.

In fact, BK117C-2 is a small aerial resuscitation unit with a medical team on board. They start treating the sick and injured while flying. For that purpose, the helicopter is equipped with an ALV, defibrillator, vital parameters measurement unit, and other devices, such as newborn transportation modules.

Since 2018, aviation medical teams have been on duty around the clock. Pilots were additionally trained for night flights, because it is much more difficult to recognize obstacles, such as cranes or electrical wires, in the dark. Helicopter landing areas were also prepared for the new mode of work: they were fit up with radio and lighting equipment.

Three crews of ambulance helicopters are on duty in Moscow daily, one of them — at night time. BK117 C-2 crews rescued and evacuated more than 6,700 people over 14 years of service.