It's sad that they felt they couldn't land at the soccer field because of players and spectators. I don't get why it would have been difficult to just have the players get off the field and delay the game while they used it as an HLZ? Better for the PT, safer for the public, and those players would have a pretty crazy story to tell. Am I missing something?
Not to mention good PR.
Yes, you're missing a lot it sounds like. I will admit I haven't looked at this thread in quite some time, and honestly thought it was in reference to the LASD escorting an ambulance as a professional courtesy somewhere, big whoop.
Things are oftentimes done as overkill in that county. As far as your reasonings, I'm just not quite sure I follow. The "HEMS" agencies--if we can even call them that--are provided by the city fire department, county fire department, and LASD sheriff paramedics.
I'm not sure what this call was for, but guessing by the ops original question, it involved an acutely ill child. If it was in fact a "scene call" within their county that did not have access to an appropriate EDAP, or PCCC, then perhaps this is why they requested a helicopter.
Now, back to your comment. The agencies mentioned above all staff their helicopters with paramedics trained at the ALS level, nothing more, nothing less. They also have various helicopters. Typically the LACoFD will send their firehawks, maybe their 412. LASD just replaced their Sikorsky's with Super Pumas; these are massive (see, not your standard HEMS) helicopters.
As far as why they may not have "just landed" in a soccer field. It doesn't work that way. I created a thread re: LZ's if that helps you understand a bit better. Try to imagine a field full of people being ushered off to the side to land a helicopter when it may be much more facilitating to land them somewhere else up the road a bit more open with less bystanders.
As far as a PR event? Yeah, on scene of a call is hardly the time for PR. That's across the board with any public agency. Think about it another way:
How often are bystanders who do mean well obstructing calls because they "mean well"? Now add to this the noise, excitement, and chaos a loud aircraft brings. The biggest thing with air ops is safety. Our safety, the patients safety, and the publics safety. It hardly seems safe to just pick a spot blindly.
We're in a small single-engine aircraft and hardly feel safe unless we have adequate ingress and egress. If on average you want people back 150', how difficult do you think it would be to usher a slew of people back that far? It can be hard enough with just a handful of people, including trained staff.
