Tiago Petinga / Lusa
The Minister of National Defense, Nuno Melo
Only the Braga hospital has a heliport capable of receiving the four Black Hawk helicopters that Nuno Melo announced that Portugal will buy to reinforce emergency medical assistance.
The four Black Hawk helicopters that the Minister of Defense, Nuno Melorecently announced for medical evacuation missions have a significant limitation: only one of the seven authorized hospital heliports in Portugal can receive them.
The information, provided by , was confirmed by the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC), which indicates that, due to the dimensions of the devices, the Black Hawks can only land at the Braga Hospital heliport, the Loulé one (non-hospital) and an ultralight runway in Pombal. During the night, the options are reduced to just two places.
The situation exposes a structural flaw in the Portuguese hospital network. Although there are around 37 public hospitals with heliports, only seven are currently authorized to receive emergency medical helicopters. The majority are inoperative or without certifications required by ANAC.
In 2020, the Government of António Costa announced a plan for the “rehabilitation of hospital heliports”, foreseeing the modernization of 12 priority infrastructures by the end of that year. However, the pandemic stopped work. In 2023, a working group was created to assess the situation, but the final report was never completed due to the executive’s fall. At the moment, only 10 heliports and an ultralight runway can receive emergency helicopters, seven of which are in hospitals.
The new Black Hawk helicopters, to be acquired with funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) for 32 million euros, should be delivered in August next year. Although the priority mission is medical evacuation, the Ministry of Defense admits that they could also be used in search and rescue operations or air transport.
Aeronautical experts question, however, whether these devices are the most suitable for medical missions, pointing out that they were originally designed for combat and military transport. Speaking to , Vítor Almeida, a civil helitransport doctor for patients for 25 years, states that these helicopters are “very big, take a long time to leave the base and are noisy”.
Still, the Ministry of Defense highlights the versatility and large cabin of the Black Hawk, considering it a “excellent choice” for medical evacuations, even if the country does not yet have compatible heliports to receive them.
