Definition
Specially trained medical personnel — such as flight nurses, paramedics, or physicians — who are carried aboard an aircraft for the purpose of attending to patients during flight. They are considered required crewmembers when their presence is essential to the mission, such as on air ambulance or medevac flights.
Plain English
These are the medical staff who fly with the patient and look after them while the aircraft is in the air. On a medical flight, they are part of the crew, not passengers.
Context Anchor
Seen in air ambulance, emergency medical service, and patient transport operations.
Why Pilots Care
Determines proper crew composition, weight and balance calculations, duty-time limits, and coordination responsibilities on medical missions.
Intuition Check
Do not assume medical crewmembers are flight crewmembers who help fly the aircraft. In this use, they are crew because they have assigned medical duties on board.
Example Sentence 1
The medevac flight departed with two pilots and two medical crewmembers attending the patient in the cabin.
Example Sentence 2
Medical crewmembers completed their required aviation safety training before being added to the flight manifest.