PHUKET now has a ''flying limousine,'' a helicopter that can take you where you want to go, when you want to go.
In emergencies, it could be a very important method of providing rescue. However, the chopper is a savings stopper.
It will cost users 2000 baht a minute to ride in the 240 million baht flying machine. With a doctor and nurse on board, it will come at 140,000 baht an hour.
The ''Sky ICU'' whirlybird, which will be on standby 24 hours a day, was on display yesterday at Phuket Country Club in Kathu.
The single-blade Eurocopter EC145 will be kept at the Phuket Police Aviation Helibase in Phuket City, where there is space for six helicopters.
Other landing zones are in mainland Krabi, Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, Phang Nga, Le Meridien, Khao Lak Seaview, Koh Racha and some other offshore islands where resorts have landing facilities.
The General Manager of Bangkok Helicopter Services, Kirati Kraiprasit, told Phuketwan that the aircraft could carry people on stretchers or be fitted as an eight-seater.
It has a top speed of 268 kmh, can climb rapidly, and has a range of 680 kilometres. With extra tanks, it can stay in the air for 215 minutes, day and night.
There are two pilots, and the helicopter subsidiary company has been formed by Bangkok Airways.
It is described as the first helicopter emergency service in Thailand and South East Asia, although helicopters were widely used for medical evacuations as long ago as the Vietnam War.
The chopper will be available for charter work throughout the region. Khun Kirati expects customers will include high-end family groups who want to go to remote destinations speedily.
A customer called during the demonstration, wanting to fly with her husband to Phi Phi. But the helicopter was being shown to the media.
The couple made their way to the Country Club and took off as soon as the demonstration was over.
The company has access to six pilots, registered nurses with at least five years of critical care experience, and aviation medical doctors.
Earlier this year, the helicopter plucked to safety an Australian, who had been lost in the jungle in Laos for 11 days.
Hayden Adcock, 40, suffered multiple health problems after he went missing on a short walk to a waterfall in a national park in the Khammouane province of Laos on July 31.
His mother, Lynne Sturrock, said her son was badly injured in the jungle before he was rescued.
''He came upon a beautiful escarpment of colored rocks, something he hadn't seen before and went over to have a look, maybe strayed off the track a bit, and some huge lizards came out,'' she said.
The lizards chased him, and he was injured when he fell from the escarpment, becoming prey to local wildlife, she said.
''Wild animals had attacked him and he was covered in wounds,'' she told a television network.
''Flies had bitten him. He ended up with maggots in his wounds, which is a good thing, people are saying, but they ended up laying eggs in the good layers of the skin as well.''
Some people are seeking an expansion of helipads throughout the region as a safety measure.
Vice Admiral Supot Pruksa, until October the Commander, Third Naval Area Command, overseeing the Royal Thai Navy in the Andaman, has tried to instigate a plan for helicopter pads on other outlying islands.
His plan was simple: to be prepared, in the event of a problem involving safety at sea, to make rescue easier.
What is not well known is that his plan for the helicopter pads sprang from a personal tragedy.
His nephew, as a young man on a navy exercise, died for want of assistance in tragic circumstances where the weather prevented his rescue.
A helicopter pad may have saved his life.
Vice Admiral Supot still believes that the Similan Islands and Surin Island need small, unobtrusive helicopter pads as a precaution for when seafarers, especially tourists, get into trouble.
The Vice Admiral took early retirement, but his idea lives on.
Earlier in the day, Governor Preecha Ruangjan donned his uniform to join in a presentation of medical equipment worth 4.7 million baht to 35 government sectors in the Andaman region.
The equipment, shown to the media at Bangkok Phuket Hospital, was donated by the Vejdusit Foundation.
Helicopter Emergency Contact Call centre 1719 or tel: +66 85 4880484 or Khun Kirati on 08 1925 0059. E: marketing@bangkokherlicopter.co.th
In emergencies, it could be a very important method of providing rescue. However, the chopper is a savings stopper.
It will cost users 2000 baht a minute to ride in the 240 million baht flying machine. With a doctor and nurse on board, it will come at 140,000 baht an hour.
The ''Sky ICU'' whirlybird, which will be on standby 24 hours a day, was on display yesterday at Phuket Country Club in Kathu.
The single-blade Eurocopter EC145 will be kept at the Phuket Police Aviation Helibase in Phuket City, where there is space for six helicopters.
Other landing zones are in mainland Krabi, Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, Phang Nga, Le Meridien, Khao Lak Seaview, Koh Racha and some other offshore islands where resorts have landing facilities.
The General Manager of Bangkok Helicopter Services, Kirati Kraiprasit, told Phuketwan that the aircraft could carry people on stretchers or be fitted as an eight-seater.
It has a top speed of 268 kmh, can climb rapidly, and has a range of 680 kilometres. With extra tanks, it can stay in the air for 215 minutes, day and night.
There are two pilots, and the helicopter subsidiary company has been formed by Bangkok Airways.
It is described as the first helicopter emergency service in Thailand and South East Asia, although helicopters were widely used for medical evacuations as long ago as the Vietnam War.
The chopper will be available for charter work throughout the region. Khun Kirati expects customers will include high-end family groups who want to go to remote destinations speedily.
A customer called during the demonstration, wanting to fly with her husband to Phi Phi. But the helicopter was being shown to the media.
The couple made their way to the Country Club and took off as soon as the demonstration was over.
The company has access to six pilots, registered nurses with at least five years of critical care experience, and aviation medical doctors.
Earlier this year, the helicopter plucked to safety an Australian, who had been lost in the jungle in Laos for 11 days.
Hayden Adcock, 40, suffered multiple health problems after he went missing on a short walk to a waterfall in a national park in the Khammouane province of Laos on July 31.
His mother, Lynne Sturrock, said her son was badly injured in the jungle before he was rescued.
''He came upon a beautiful escarpment of colored rocks, something he hadn't seen before and went over to have a look, maybe strayed off the track a bit, and some huge lizards came out,'' she said.
The lizards chased him, and he was injured when he fell from the escarpment, becoming prey to local wildlife, she said.
''Wild animals had attacked him and he was covered in wounds,'' she told a television network.
''Flies had bitten him. He ended up with maggots in his wounds, which is a good thing, people are saying, but they ended up laying eggs in the good layers of the skin as well.''
Some people are seeking an expansion of helipads throughout the region as a safety measure.
Vice Admiral Supot Pruksa, until October the Commander, Third Naval Area Command, overseeing the Royal Thai Navy in the Andaman, has tried to instigate a plan for helicopter pads on other outlying islands.
His plan was simple: to be prepared, in the event of a problem involving safety at sea, to make rescue easier.
What is not well known is that his plan for the helicopter pads sprang from a personal tragedy.
His nephew, as a young man on a navy exercise, died for want of assistance in tragic circumstances where the weather prevented his rescue.
A helicopter pad may have saved his life.
Vice Admiral Supot still believes that the Similan Islands and Surin Island need small, unobtrusive helicopter pads as a precaution for when seafarers, especially tourists, get into trouble.
The Vice Admiral took early retirement, but his idea lives on.
Earlier in the day, Governor Preecha Ruangjan donned his uniform to join in a presentation of medical equipment worth 4.7 million baht to 35 government sectors in the Andaman region.
The equipment, shown to the media at Bangkok Phuket Hospital, was donated by the Vejdusit Foundation.
Helicopter Emergency Contact Call centre 1719 or tel: +66 85 4880484 or Khun Kirati on 08 1925 0059. E: marketing@bangkokherlicopter.co.th
