Medical crews stationed at the Air Ambulance Center in the eastern province of Malatya race against time to keep critically ill and injured patients alive, responding to emergencies across a vast and rugged region.
One of the helicopter ambulances operated by the Health Ministry is based at the Malatya Air Ambulance Center, serving not only Malatya but also neighboring Kahramanmaraş, Elazığ, Tunceli, Bingöl and Adıyaman.
The center is located at the Tulga-1 Barracks of the 2nd Army Aviation Regiment in Malatya. It operates with a rotating team that includes one doctor, one emergency medical technician, five pilots and two ground staff.
The crew’s duty begins at first light and continues until sunset. After an emergency call is received by the 112 Command and Control Center, the team prepares within four to five minutes and departs for the scene.
Flying over difficult terrain, the crew often provides the first medical intervention inside the helicopter before rapidly transporting patients or injured people to hospitals.
Malatya Provincial Health Director Cezmi Karaca said the air ambulance plays a vital role at critical moments, with crews taking significant risks to reach patients.
"They work selflessly,” Karaca told Anadolu Agency (AA). "Just like our colleagues in ground ambulances and across all 112 emergency health services, those working on the air ambulance are extremely valuable to us and carry out a very important mission.”
Responsible pilot Mehmet Sami Altay said he has served at the center since 2013. Flights are conducted between sunrise and sunset, beginning each day with weather assessments and technical checks of the helicopter.
"We review meteorological conditions, check whether there are restricted airspaces and conduct a briefing before remaining on standby,” Altay said. "We encounter very difficult patients in very challenging locations. Many of us have prior flight experience in the Turkish Armed Forces or law enforcement, and we are able to apply that experience to air ambulance missions.”
Altay said operations can be particularly challenging when patients are located in rural or hard-to-access areas, noting that even with coordinates reviewed in advance, crews sometimes face unexpected difficulties.
Pilot Bahadır Yılmaz said they are sometimes required to land at high altitudes. Using multiple mapping applications helps them assess landing zones in advance, he added.
"If conditions on site differ from our initial assessments, we update our decision and may request that the patient be moved to a safer, more accessible location,” Yılmaz said. "Compared with ground ambulances, our advantage is reaching otherwise inaccessible areas, intervening more quickly and supporting ground teams when they are unavailable or assigned elsewhere.”
Doctor Necmettin Gürbüz, who has worked on the air ambulance for two years, said the job involves significant challenges, particularly in rural settings.
"These cases often involve serious injuries – trauma from falls, gunshot wounds or attacks by wild animals,” Gürbüz said. "We work in a very limited space inside the helicopter. We cannot take a patient onboard until we stabilize them enough to minimize risks during flight, because once airborne, the treatment area becomes even more constrained.”
Emergency medical technician Burak Genç said he previously worked on a ground ambulance before transferring to the air ambulance following the Feb. 6, 2023, Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes.
"I enjoy working on the helicopter more,” Genç said. "We can reach places that ground ambulances cannot. In areas with cliffs or similar terrain, we are often the ones who retrieve the patients.”