Educational Program Brings Flight Responders Together

Jon Kaminski, founder and president of East Coast Helicopter Operations (ECHO), has devised a unique, highly specialized way to bring EMS, police and military operations together.

Kaminski established ECHO three years ago so that crews from EMS, law enforcement and military flight programs could collaborate and share their experiences, train and build partnerships across the traditionally independent areas of response.

“Typically, firefighters, paramedics, police officers and nurses stay in their own corners,” Kaminski says. “There’s generally a big wall between them, and nobody talks to each other. This brings everybody together to train and share their knowledge, experiences and lessons learned. It helps people make contacts and network with others to help get training opportunities in their areas. If someone needs water rescue training, a guy in Minnesota can contact a Coast Guard contact he met via ECHO to come in and train his crew.”

Kaminski emphasizes the exclusivity of the ECHO motto: By flight crews for flight crews.

“It is focused solely on the flight crews,” Kaminski says. “This allows EMS, police officers and military flight crews to talk through major incidents they respond to and learn from them. We can debrief common incidents and train from real-world experiences.”

Knowledge and Experience

ECHO began in September 2013 when Kaminski invited flight programs around the Washington, DC, area to a fly-in lunch event. The event drew 60 crew members and 11 helicopters from law enforcement, air medical and military programs. The program now has more than 2,000 flight crew members.

ECHO does not replace the traditional formal training required for all first responders. “This is extra training,” Kaminski says. “Paramedics on ground ambulances and firefighters still are required to go through paramedic and fire academies. Nurses typically need five years of ICU and ER experience to become certified to be on a flight crew. They all need higher-acuity patient experience to be certified. Flight crews take care of the significantly injured or the incredibly sick who have to be transferred from one hospital to another. They also learn the safety of operating around the helicopter and what to do in the event of a crash.”

Each year ECHO hosts four major training events, including an annual conference, but interacts with flight crews year-round via social media. The idea is to use the knowledge and experience of flight programs and crews to discuss, brainstorm and resolve common issues facing emergency response flight crews. The experience and knowledge is drawn from EMS, law enforcement, and search and rescue in both the public and private sectors, as well as from military flight crews.

“It’s important to have the military component because they have flown thousands of miles in volatile areas like Iraq and Afghanistan,” Kaminski says. “The Coast Guard offers lessons in what they’ve experienced and learned about water rescue and water survival if they crash. Who better to teach that than someone from the Coast Guard?”

ECHO is based on the East Coast, but flight programs from around the world are welcome to participate, and there is no cost to join or attend training sessions except travel expenses and lodging. Crews earn continuing education credits as well.

ECHO provides training for aviators, medical personnel, law enforcement, maintenance technicians and SAR technicians. Presenters donate their time, and sponsors help underwrite the minimal costs to conduct classes and conferences, which include free meals to allow attendees to remain on site and network.

“Everything is sponsor-based,” Kaminski says. “If we get $500, we stretch it as far as we can. Initially we began in the DC region, but we have had flight crews come in from as far as Alaska. Now we can interact with crews overseas with our online engagement. The biggest thing we ask is that everyone puts their egos aside. We usually start the training with a pilot who had a humbling experience. That sets the tone for everyone to listen, learn and share their experiences.”

The speakers have real-world experience, including the tactical flight officer who flew over the Baltimore riots and flight crews from the Boston Marathon bombing manhunt.

“We can have a police officer from Atlanta working with someone who’s flown missions in Afghanistan,” Kaminski says. “ER doctors discuss prehospital care, or someone provides information about challenging pediatric scenarios. We had crews in from Minnesota where one flight crew crashed and the competition medevac crew was the first responder on the scene. We had a Virginia state police pilot who was a former military pilot talk about his helicopter being shot by a murderer during a manhunt. Someone from another place might ask what that has to do with them, but it teaches them how to be able to react if it happens.”

Kaminski says he has seen a trend that flight crews are not offered as many training opportunities as traditional first responders.

“Everybody complains that there are no opportunities to go to training exclusively for flight crews,” Kaminski says. “There’s also no time to do it, and it’s too costly. Most ground first responders do training while on duty, and if there’s a call, they can just hop in their ambulance and go.”

To address those concerns, ECHO is trying to conduct training sessions at fire, paramedic and police academy facilities and other places where local flight crews can land their helicopters.

Kaminski says that while the program is only open to current flight crews, ECHO has started a “Future Flight” program for paramedics, EMTs and nurses to attend the training sessions.

“They have to submit an application essay about why they want to be on a flight crew,” Kaminski says. “For our last conference, we gave 10 people spots with the condition that they help with the setup and training.”

For more information about ECHO, visit www.eastcoastheliops.com.

Susan E. Sagarra is a writer, editor and book author based in St. Louis, MO.