Pivotal Launches eVTOL Emergency Response Operations with Hyde County, North Carolina and Code Blue Resources

Piv­otal has announced a proof-of-con­cept project with Hyde Coun­ty and Code Blue Resources which will estab­lish a scal­able emer­gency med­ical response mod­el using eVTOL air­craft, which until now have main­ly been used by cit­i­zens in the pri­vate sec­tor.

Flight-trained para­medics serve as vol­un­teer pilots, deploy­ing Piv­otal eVTOL air­craft to pro­vide rapid, advanced med­ical care direct­ly at high-acu­ity emer­gency scenes when con­di­tions are appro­pri­ate.

Hyde Coun­ty Emer­gency Ser­vices (HCES) will utilise the ultra­light vehi­cles with Piv­otal serv­ing as an inte­gral part­ner, pro­vid­ing the vehi­cles, com­pre­hen­sive flight train­ing and oper­a­tional inte­gra­tion sup­port. Code Blue Resources will lead the med­ical com­po­nent of the ini­tia­tive, which is focused on sig­nif­i­cant­ly accel­er­at­ing emer­gency response and on-scene time to treat­ment for crit­i­cal care calls.

This pilot project will eval­u­ate the oper­a­tional require­ments for deploy­ing Piv­otal eVTOL air­craft as an EMS dis­patch vehi­cle under a Pub­lic Air­craft Oper­a­tion (POA). No per­sons or prop­er­ty will be car­ried for com­pen­sa­tion or hire. The vehi­cle will not be used to trans­port patients, car­go, or deliv­ery equip­ment.

Ken Karklin, CEO, Piv­otal, said: “Cre­at­ing this pro­gram with Hyde Coun­ty and Code Blue Resources marks a defin­i­tive mile­stone for advanced air mobil­i­ty. For the first time, eVTOL tech­nol­o­gy is being deployed to sup­port active pub­lic safe­ty oper­a­tions.

“The ini­tial phase is designed to build the frame­work for sus­tained Air­mo­bile Emer­gency Ser­vices response, and we expect it could deliv­er mea­sur­able life-sav­ing ben­e­fits from the start.”

Regard­less of geography—urban, sub­ur­ban, or rural—EMS sys­tems face per­sis­tent chal­lenges in reach­ing patients quick­ly due to dis­tance, traf­fic, ter­rain, and oth­er fac­tors beyond con­trol.

In addi­tion to EMS response, Hyde Coun­ty intends to deploy Piv­otal’s eVTOL air­craft to sup­port law enforce­ment, fire and emer­gency man­age­ment oper­a­tions. A defin­i­tive exam­ple would be inci­dent dam­age assess­ments fol­low­ing nat­ur­al dis­as­ters or mass casu­al­ty inci­dents.

Piv­otal FAA Part 103–compliant ultra­light eVTOL vehi­cles do not require a tra­di­tion­al pilot license; Oper­a­tors must com­plete Pivotal’s rig­or­ous in-house pilot cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and train­ing pro­gram.

Hyde Coun­ty Emer­gency Ser­vices (HCES) is a divi­sion of the Hyde Coun­ty Sheriff’s Depart­ment and pro­vides orga­nized pre-hos­pi­tal emer­gency med­ical care and trans­port across the coun­ty.

Annu­al­ly, HCES answers approx­i­mate­ly 1,000 911 calls 24/7 with EMS pro­fes­sion­als deliv­er­ing both basic and advanced life sup­port. Per­son­nel oper­ate under the poli­cies and pro­to­cols of the North Car­oli­na Office of Emer­gency Med­ical Ser­vices and are trained to assess, treat, sta­bi­lize, and trans­port patients in emer­gency sit­u­a­tions.

Chief Brook Cox, direc­tor of Emer­gency Med­ical Ser­vices, Hyde Coun­ty, N.C., said: “Pivotal’s eVTOL tech­nol­o­gy rep­re­sents a pos­si­ble leap for­ward for our pub­lic safe­ty oper­a­tions. Its abil­i­ty to deploy rapid­ly, with­out run­ways or spe­cial­ized infra­struc­ture, opens entire­ly new pos­si­bil­i­ties for sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness, oper­a­tional reach, and scal­able response.

“For EMS in rur­al regions like the Out­er Coastal Plain, this is not just a tool—it’s a cost-effi­cient plat­form that fun­da­men­tal­ly expands how we approach emer­gency man­age­ment.

“By inte­grat­ing EMS, Law Enforce­ment, Search & Res­cue, and Emer­gency Man­age­ment func­tions into a sin­gle avi­a­tion response plat­form, this project demon­strates a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary approach that improves speed, safe­ty, oper­a­tional coor­di­na­tion, and improved out­comes while min­i­miz­ing cost and logis­ti­cal com­plex­i­ty.”

Code Blue Resources is a North Carolina–based com­pa­ny rec­og­nized as a leader in emer­gency pre­pared­ness. The com­pa­ny spe­cial­izes in emer­gency med­ical train­ing, emer­gency response con­sult­ing, and the inte­gra­tion of inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy into EMS sys­tems to enhance per­for­mance and improve patient out­comes.

Head­quar­tered in Wake For­est, North Car­oli­na, Code Blue Resources is 100 per­cent woman-owned and led by a para­medic with more than 35 years of expe­ri­ence in emer­gency ser­vices and more than 30 years in the emer­gency med­ical equip­ment and sup­ply indus­try

Car­la Bak­er, Pres­i­dent, Code Blue Resources, said: “As the First in Flight state, North Car­oli­na has always led in avi­a­tion inno­va­tion. Inte­grat­ing eVTOLs into pub­lic safe­ty is our chance to lead again—elevating emer­gency care and response to new heights.

“When every sec­ond mat­ters, eVTOLs allow para­medics to rise above traf­fic, ter­rain, and tra­di­tion­al barriers—bringing crit­i­cal care direct­ly from the street to the sky and to the patient’s side.”

Fea­tured image cour­tesy of Piv­otal.