Empowering Norwegian Air Ambulance with Seamless Communication

Our expansive network serves as a vital backbone for Norwegian Air Ambulance’s services across the region.

When an air ambulance takes off, it embarks on a mission that demands precision and efficiency. Seamless data transfer is crucial for relaying patient information, medical updates, and navigational data between the air ambulance and healthcare institutions.

With operations in Norway, there are often challenging weather conditions with strong winds, heavy rain, fog, and snowstorms. Therefore, Norwegian Air Ambulance has heavily invested in weather cameras across Norway to provide operational support to the 13 air ambulance bases.

Weather cameras are financed through the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation, which has 300,000 support members and companies. They are taking part in a charity work to develop the air ambulance service to become even better.

One of the sites is at Tryvannshøgda, where the new weather camera station will ensure that the helicopters can deliver patients to the hospitals in Oslo, even in bad weather.

High up in Telenor Towers 209.5-metre-high mast, technicians from Norwegian Air Ambulance Technology are working on the installation of two large camera stations. These stations, with six cameras providing a 360-degree view of the airspace of Oslo, will tell pilots where it is safe to fly.

“Sometimes the fog lies thick down in Oslo and makes it impossible to land the helicopter at Ullevål Hospital. At the same time, the sun may be shining on Tryvannshøgda, making it possible to land and hand over the patient to a car ambulance. The weather camera provides answers to where it is possible to land and can help us confirm other weather data created by computers. A picture tells you more than a thousand words.”, says base chief pilot at Lørenskog, Bent Næss from Norsk Luftambulanse.

The weather camera station at Tryvannshøgda is not only important for the helicopters that fly from the Lørenskog base. “The medical helicopters from Ål, Dombås, Arendal, and occasionally from Western and Central Norway, deliver acutely ill and severely injured patients to the large hospitals in Oslo. They fly a long way, so it’s extra important to know that they can land when they arrive,” says Næss.

Infrastructure that matters

The guyed steel mast from Telenor Towers was built in 1990 on Tryvannshøgda, 515 metres above sea level. Among other things, it ensures that the capital area has mobile coverage, radio, TV and internet.

“We are pleased to be able to deliver a robust infrastructure that provides the air ambulance service with better weather information and citizens with an even better health service,” says Torbjørn Teigen, CEO at Telenor Towers.

The 175 weather camera stations in Norway are crowdfunded through Norwegian Air Ambulance, private donors and other supporting businesses. Both the Police and the Air Force obtain important information from the weather camera system.

“Several helicopter missions are rejected due to bad weather. We have placed cameras that show the weather in strategic places from north to south in the country. This makes it easier for the crews to plan whether they can reach the patient by helicopter, or whether they should land somewhere closer to the patient to be able to provide help faster,” says Hege Bommen, Head of Emergency Preparedness Solutions at Norwegian Air Ambulance Technology.

“By ensuring that our towers and masts are maintained to the highest standards, we provide a reliable foundation for their critical services” says Torbjørn Teigen and continues with “our collaboration with Norwegian Air Ambulance also highlights the importance of robust infrastructure in saving lives and enhancing emergency medical care. By empowering Norsk Luftambulanse with seamless navigation and communication capabilities, we contribute to a safer and more responsive healthcare system”.