Analysis of Altitude Hypoxia Training and In-Flight Hypoxia Events among the Helicopter Aircrews

Kwo-Tsao Chiang, Hsin Chu, Min-Yu Tu, You-Jin Lin, Sing-Hong Lin, Yu-Hsin Wen and Chung-Yu Lai
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Kwo-Tsao Chiang: Aviation Physiology Research Laboratory, Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital Gangshan Branch, Kaohsiung City 820, Taiwan
Hsin Chu: Medical Section, Civil Aviation Medical Center, Taipei City 105, Taiwan
Min-Yu Tu: Aviation Physiology Research Laboratory, Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital Gangshan Branch, Kaohsiung City 820, Taiwan
You-Jin Lin: Graduate Institute of Aerospace and Undersea Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei City 114, Taiwan
Sing-Hong Lin: Medical Affairs Section, Chief Inspector’s Office, Headquarters of Air Force, Taipei City 104, Taiwan
Yu-Hsin Wen: Aviation Physiology Research Laboratory, Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital Gangshan Branch, Kaohsiung City 820, Taiwan
Chung-Yu Lai: Graduate Institute of Aerospace and Undersea Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei City 114, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-10

Abstract: All aircrews are required to undertake the altitude hypoxia training and be familiarized with the hypobaric effect on their physiological regulation. Due to the characteristics of the helicopter aircrafts, few researches have reported in-flight hypoxia events among the helicopter aircrews. The main goal of this study was designed to compare the hypoxia symptoms of helicopter aircrews between the altitude hypoxia training and during flight. We developed a questionnaire to collect the details of chamber flights and in-flight hypoxia events in 2019. All data were managed by the SPSS software and two-tailed 0.05 alpha level was considered as a significant level. Of the 213 study participants, there were eight (3.8%) cases that experienced hypoxia symptoms during the flight. The top five symptoms that appeared both in the last and current altitude hypoxia trainings were visual impairment (20.7%), difficulty concentrating (12.7%), tiredness (12.2%), cognitive impairment (8.0%), and air hunger (5.2%). Meanwhile, the frequency of those symptoms above was not significantly different from the last or current training compared with those in-flight hypoxia events. The survey unveiled a series of consistency correlations of hypoxia symptoms between the chamber flights and in-flight environment for the helicopter aircrew group.

Keywords: helicopter aircrew; altitude hypoxia training; hypoxia; chamber flight; in-flight hypoxia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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