Between September 2000 and August 2001, the Royal Thai AF took delivery of 25 former German AF Alpha Jets, of which 20 were put into service with Squadron 231 based at Udon Thani, while the remaining 5 airframes served as spares. The airframe pictured here is former German AF 41+49 (98+49), wearing a grey two-tone camo applied to the Thai Alpha Jet fleet as from 2011. The Bangkok Post in 2019 reported that Thai Aerospace was to upgrade 14 of the RTAF's Alpha Jet with a modern glass cockpit including HUD's and HOTAS.

The L.A. County Fire Department started to use Bell 412's in early 1990. Seven Bell 412 airframes have been introduced over the years, with two Bell 412HP and three Bell 412EP remaining in service when this picture was taken. N14LA is a 2005 built airframe returning to its homebase for maintenance here, after having spent the previous 24 hours on stand-by on a forward operating base.

In a surprise move in early 2023, Heliswiss International bought this 1963 (!) built KV-107 from Columbia Helicopters. Till 1976, this airframe has been operated by the Royal Thai Army, serialled "4003". The small HSI fleet of only three helicopters now consits of three different types. The sanctions on Russia due to the Ukraine conflict makes it hard for HSI to operate the Kamov KA-32 HB-XKA, while the sole AS-332 HB-XVY is quite expensive to operate. Thus, HSI took a rather unconventional decision and obtained this KV107, the first civilian of it's kind to be operated in Europe.

Simplon Air was founded in 2007 by italian helicopter pioneer Gian Paolo Giana. As early as 1972, at the age of 25, Giana started to operate helicopters in the mountains around the Ossola valley and named the emerging company "Giana Helicopter". Having swiss roots and being an admirer of swiss rescue pioneer Hermann Geiger, Giana seems to feel more swiss than italian, as the family owned company operates it's helicopters under the swiss register. The flagship of the fleet is this 1995 built MD900 which was previously operated by Breitling and joined Simplon Air in June of 2018.

This 2015 built EC145 has first been delivered to INEAR Italy, which later became Babcock Italy. As of March 1, 2023, Babcock Italy was bought by the Avincis Group and thus rebranded once again. Caiolo became an EC145 base in early 2021 after Elilombarda's AW139 lost the HEMS contract to Babcock. Operated on behalf of AREU, the regional emergency agency for the Region of Lombardia set up in 2007. AREU maintains five EMS helicopter bases: Caiolo/Sondrio, Brescia, Bergamo, Como and Milan.

The first and so far only AW189 on the Swiss register taxies out in St Stephan for its first flight as HB-XLQ. It took off and proceeded straight to Helicopter Maintenance Company KAREN loacted in Lodrino, Ticino. The 2016 built aircraft has previously been registered as I-AWCU, OY-HFD and finally in Russia as RA-01698, from where it was imported to Switzerland in late 2021, a bare two months before the Ukraine conflicted started and sanctions on Russia were implemented in due course. Carries a small "Helipool" sticker in the white stripe behind the co-pilot's door.

One of eight AS350B3's operated by Eliossola. Crashed on May 20, 2023 in Lugo near Rovenna (between Bologna and Rimini), a long way from it's Domodossola homebase. The accident occured while inspecting powerlines damaged by heavy rains. Fortunately, all crew and passengers survied the incident.

Built as a C-12A and originally serialled 76-0167, this airframe has an interesting history, as in 1979 it was expelled by South Africa, after being accused for performing intelligence gathering. Reserialled to 76-3239 in due course and later converted to C-12C standard. Reported to have been assigned to the US Embassies in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Jakarta (Indonesia), Bangkok (Thailand) and since December 2018 based in Ankara, Turkey. From there it paid a short visit to exercise Anatolian Eagle 2023.

3076 is one of 55 F-16E single-seater "Desert Falcons" in service with the UAEAF since 2004. Built in 2006, this airframe previously carried US FY number 00-6051 and is reported to be assigned to Shaheen / Squadron 2 based at Al Dhafra AB. Note the rather massive Raytheon AGM-88C HARM missile under the wing. HARM stands for High-Speed-Anti-Radiation-Missile and it's purpose is to cause harm to radar installations. However, in this picture, the 4 meter long missile does not carry any explosives, as can be seen by the blue ring on the missile. The UAE has about 160 AGM-88 in its inventory.

In late 2017, the Qatar Emiri AF ordered a total of 24 Eurofighters, with deliveries commencing in August 2022. By April 2023, the QEAF had about a dozen EF2000's on strength, and five were sent to Konya to participate in exercise Anatolian Eagle 2023, marking the first international deployment of the type and allowing the QEAF to gain valuable experience on it.

Having leased another BD-700 Global Express between 1999 and 2001 (serialled M48-01, cn 9007), the Royal Malaysian Air Force took delivery of this 2001 built Global Express in 2002. Still current at the time of upload, it is being used for Government VIP flights along a sole Dassault Falcon 900 Biz-Jet serialled M37-01.

Eliossola, founded in July of 1993 to serve the communities of the Ossola Valley, operates two SA-315 Lama's and eight AS-350B3's, of which I-JANI is the latest addition. Joining the fleet in August 2022, this 2009 built airframe still wears the basic paint scheme of former french owner and operator SAF Helicopters. Besides the main base in Domodossola, Eliossola maintains a second operational base in Mergozzo (Province of Verbania), a twenty minute drive to the south of Domodossola.

This 2001 built AS-350B2 was previously operated in the HEMS role by Air Methods, before joining Mercy Air Helicopter in 2014. Usually based in Whiteriver, South Africa, it has been deployed to Malawi for three weeks in March / April 2023. It is seen here in front of the Mulanje mountain region during relief work after cyclone "Freddy" severely hit the area, killing some 1000 people in Malawi alone. The cyclone caused flooding, landslides and destroyed many houses. The Malawi Government officially named the relief efforts "Operation Tigwirane Manja 2023" ("joining hands").

Built 2015, test registration N273MM. Two of RACQ LifeFlight's five AW139 are under contract with a consortium of gas companies (Arrow Energy, Origin Energy, Queensland Gas Company and Santos) for the Surat Gas Aeromedical Service (SGAS), hence the various stickers all over this aicraft. The one pictured here is based in Toowoomba operating as RSCU588, the other one is stationed in Roma. As such, the two helicopters are on stand-by 24/7 for the oil companies, and are usually not available for the general public.

Even though there are a few hospitals with helipads in and around Brisbane, the Prince Charles Hospital is the one most used by Queensland's EMS helicopters. Here, VH-XCK just landed after a 1 hour 20 minutes long flight from the coastal city of Bundaberg. Due to Queensland's size, it is not rare for a EMS helicopter flight to last several hours. However, many times and to save cost, australian fixed-wing operator Royal Flying Doctor Service brings patients from remote places closer to a bigger city / airport, from where the patient is picked up by helicopter and flown directly to a clinic.

REGA Swiss Air Ambulance usually assigns certain helicopters to it's bases accross Switzerland, but keeps a few "spare" helicopters to cover the bases when the assigned helis are due for "heavy" maintenance, which is performed at REGA's HQ at Zurich airport. In 2021, HB-ZQL has not been assigned to a base but was used where needed.

During each winter season, Swiss Helicopter maintains this temporaly heliport near Gstaad to offer Helisking to the many tourists. For the night, the heli is flown to the nearby Swiss Helicopter base at Zweisimmen, where it is based for the rest of the year.

Over the years, Air Madagascar operated a total of four ATR-42, all of which have been replaced by ATR-72's. The last ATR-42 (and only -500) to join the fleet was 5R-MJG built in July of 2006. In September of 2016, this airframe was sold to Colombia where it continues to fly for EasyFly as HK-5199 at the time of upload.

Mailand Malpensa is a huge air cargo hub and therefore offers diversity in cargo aircraft traffic from around the globe. JA16KZ shown here is a 2014 built airframe and one of eight operated by Nippon Cargo Airlines (registered JA11KZ through JA18KZ).

A welcome "change" in the german HEMS market - dominated by the DRF and ADAC - is the Johanniter Luftrettung, which maintains a total of four HEMS bases and still operates a few AS-365 Dauphin and this sole EC155 helicopter. However, both types are also being replaced by the more modern H145 in the near future.