Tibet Airways released a statement on the evening of December 23rd:
On December 21st, a captain of our flight TV9820 (Nanjing-Chengdu) felt unwell in the course of the flight's mission, and another captain of the same crew of the flight carried out the follow-up mission (the flight was operated by two captains). The flight landed safely at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 00:25 on the following day. Subsequently, the pilot was sent to the hospital for treatment and passed away after unsuccessful rescue. The company attaches great importance to the incident and is currently handling the aftermath. We would like to thank all sectors of the community for their long-term support and care for Tibet Airlines!
While Tibet Airlines did not disclose the specific cause of the captain's illness, the incident also renewed public concern over the emergency medical care capability for drivers and passengers in public **** transportation, especially on civil aircraft, after the sudden death of a Beijing subway passenger in September this year.
During the 2019 National People's Congress, seven National People's Congress deputies, including Zhang Lixiao from Henan province, had put forward the "Proposal on the Establishment of a Medical Rescue System in the Civil Aviation and Railway System", hoping that a medical rescue system for the civil aviation and railroad system would be jointly established by the national health, emergency management, civil aviation, railroads and other departments, with professional medical personnel, and that the establishment of airports, high-speed rail stations, train stations and local medical institutions would be Linkage emergency rescue mechanism, so that people's road to travel more secure.
In 2019, the Civil Aviation Administration had revised the Equipping of Emergency Rescue Facilities and Equipment for Civil Transport Airports, focusing on pre-hospital first aid and emergency response to public **** health emergencies, and divided airports into 10 grades according to their size, clarifying the requirements for the configuration of the medicines, equipment, devices, supplies and ambulances they need; at the same time, it requires airports of all grades to set up first aid rooms in the terminals and, during the operation period At the same time, airports of all levels are required to set up first aid rooms in the terminal building and arrange medical personnel to be on duty during operation, equipped with first aid equipment and commonly used first aid drugs. In addition, on-board emergency medical care is also guaranteed through the provision of emergency medical equipment, first-aid equipment and commonly used emergency medicines, and regular medical first-aid knowledge and skills training for flight attendants.
In terms of in-flight emergency medical care, in 2016 China Southern Airlines took the lead in launching the ? The program was launched by China Southern Airlines in 2016, which is the first to launch an in-flight medical volunteer program. In 2017, China Eastern Airlines and the Shanghai Physician Volunteer Union*** launched the first domestic? In 2017, China Eastern Airlines and the Shanghai Physician Volunteer Union*** launched the first in-flight medical expert program in China. Project, the latter recommended physician volunteers, the use of physician volunteers to travel the opportunity to volunteer duty in the air, and the preparation of the Air Medical Emergency Handbook, for the flight attendants to open the relevant training courses. In order to do a good job of emergency medical care air-ground linkage.
But can not be ignored is that the current domestic on-board emergency medical there are still many deficiencies, a well-known domestic airline pilots on the interface news reporter, the crew crew will learn basically cardiopulmonary resuscitation, artificial respiration, bandaging and other skills every two years need to be assessed, but generally encountered emergencies will still be through the on-board radio to find medical personnel. But for the crew and there is no mandatory pre-flight basic health checks, flight preparation room equipped with a blood pressure meter, but purely voluntary, in addition to only one year routine physical examination, over 40 years old for half a year.
The requirements for onboard emergency medical equipment and training are clearly stipulated in the Large Aircraft Public **** Air Transportation Carrier Operational Qualification and Validation Rules (CCAR-121-R5) issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in 2017.
It mentions that, I. Passenger-carrying aircraft are equipped with the following emergency medical equipment: first aid kit, emergency medical kit, hygiene and epidemic prevention kit. Second, the training of crew members to deal with in-flight medical emergencies should include the following:
Disposal procedures in the event of medical emergencies, including coordination between crew members; emergency medical equipment storage location, function and use; first aid box, emergency medical kits and hygiene and epidemic prevention kits within the use of the items and medicines and how to use them; each cabin crew should also be trained in: cardiopulmonary resuscitation and Each cabin crew member shall also be trained in the knowledge and operation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and isolation and disinfection, and shall receive retraining at least once every 24 months, including the operation of CPR. However, the actual practice and retraining of crew members need not be at or equivalent to the level of professional first aiders.
At the same time, there are also specific requirements for the number of emergency medical equipment and types of medical supplies for each aircraft:
(1) Each first aid kit for each aircraft in passenger flights shall be equipped with at least the following medical supplies: bandages, dressings (gauze), bandages, adhesive tapes, arterial tourniquets, burn ointment, arm splints, leg splints, medical scissors, medical scissors, rubber gloves, skin antiseptics and disinfectant, and medical scissors. rubber gloves, skin disinfectant and disinfectant cotton, one-way valve mouth-to-mouth resuscitation mask, first aid kit manual (including the list of items), incident log book or on-board emergency incident report form (2) Each aircraft should be equipped with at least one emergency medical kit when flying with passengers. Each emergency medical kit should be equipped with at least the following medicines and items: sphygmomanometer, stethoscope, oropharyngeal airway (three specifications), venous tourniquet, umbilical cord clamp, medical mask, medical rubber gloves, skin disinfectant, disinfectant swabs (balls), thermometer (non-mercury type), syringes, 0.9% sodium chloride, 1:1000 epinephrine single dosage ampoule, phenylephrine hydrochloride injection, nitroglycerine tablets, acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) oral tablets, an emergency medical kit manual with a list of medications and items, an incident log book or an in-flight emergency incident report form
In addition to? The number of hygiene kits for each aircraft in passenger flight shall not be less than 1 per 100 passenger seats (1 for up to 100 seats)? Each hygiene kit should be equipped with the following medicines and items: liquid, excreta disinfectant coagulant; surface cleaning and disinfectant tablets, skin disinfectant wipes, medical masks and eye masks, medical rubber gloves, impermeable rubber (plastic) aprons, large absorbent paper (wool) towels, portable pick-up shovels, special garbage bags for biohazardous materials, a list of items and instructions for their use, and an incident log book or an on-board emergency incident report form.
It is worth noting that it is understood that at present the domestic civil aviation aircraft are basically not equipped with automatic external defibrillator (AED), the aforementioned pilots said that the current frequency of medical volunteers on board depends on too few, AED equipment is expected to be difficult to do a machine a, after the incident of the Tibetan Airways, may be able to accelerate the progress of the various airline companies to place the AED on the plane.
While abroad, the U.S. Aviation Medical Assistance Act (AMAA) requires U.S. commercial airlines to equip each aircraft with an AED and EMK (Emergency Medical Kit). In addition the American Aerospace Medical Association and the U.S. Air Transportation Medicine Board recommend emergency medical accessories, including stethoscopes, masks, syringes and other medications. Before each flight, flight attendants check to see if the first aid kit is sealed or used up. Airlines conduct annual medical emergency training for crews, including familiarizing themselves with the contents of first aid kits, common first aid techniques such as CPR, etc., and the quality of the training is monitored by the health department.