Focusing on crew coordination: The countdown has started: the 2nd DRF Luftrettung HHO Symposium

The DRF Luftrettung Operation Center at the Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airport will once again be a meeting place for helicopter hoist specialists from across the world on 7 and 8 September 2022. The 2nd International Helicopter Hoist Operation Symposium, with a motto of Safe.Hoist.Operation, will this time have a focus on the way crews collaborate. What do modern training concepts for helicopter crews look like? What does the legal environment involve? Why is crew coordination an important factor in safety? These questions and more will be discussed by established experts from government authorities, hoist manufacturers, hoist operators and training organisations. 

Following the successful debut of the DRF Luftrettung International Helicopter Hoist Operation (HHO) Symposium last year, the specialist event will take place once again in 2022. This year, the focus will be on the helicopter crew. ‘Every helicopter hoist mission has its own special challenges. The crew members need to adjust to unpredictable situations such as difficult weather conditions in an extremely short space of time. Not only that, they also need to demonstrate the utmost concentration and precision during the mission. Findings from crew resource management and human factors research show that individual training programmes as well as standardised processes can increase safety during these ultracomplex missions significantly. It is a subject that has many different facets, so we have decided to put the focus on it at our symposium this year,’ explains Sebastian Schneider, Head of Hoist Training at DRF Luftrettung.  

There will be specialised presentations by experts from highly regarded organisations and authorities, including the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the European Safety Promotion Network Rotorcraft (ESPN-R), hoist manufacturer Collins Aerospace, the International Commission for Alpine Rescue (ICAR), and the leading training provider Priority 1 Air Rescue. The diverse agenda for the symposium will be rounded off with practical demonstrations. They will include emergency cable cutting right in front of the audience’s eyes, for example, which is intended to show the symposium attendees the complexity of this last-resort procedure that is used when an engine fails or the hoist load needs to be abandoned.