UAE Firm Prometheus Medical Says Its Evacuation Flying Hours Have Tripled

Chief executive Steven Wines gave the figure in an interview with Khaleej Times on the sidelines of ADIPEC 2026 in Abu Dhabi. He said the total covers both security work and medical evacuations, and the newspaper linked the increase to conflict raising demand for emergency response.

Wines described one recent operation in which a patient had to be moved out of an area where aircraft could not fly. According to his account, the team took the patient by armoured vehicle with a security escort to an international border, helped arrange visas, and then put the patient on an aircraft fitted with a mobile intensive care unit and staffed by a doctor, a specialist paramedic and a nurse. The patient was flown to the UAE and transferred to hospital.

He argued that the work depends on one organisation running every stage, from case management and ground transport to security, the flight and hospital handover, and on local contacts being in place before a crisis. "If you've tried to mobilise after the event, it's impossible," he said.

Work With Energy Producers

Wines said the company works with major oil and gas and renewable energy producers, running regular drills and simulations to find weaknesses in their emergency plans. Offshore sites pose particular problems because helicopters may be grounded by bad weather or rough seas, and he said experience with sea ambulances in Norway could inform alternative arrangements in the region.

He also stressed training for workers already on site, including prolonged field care techniques drawn from military medicine, for cases where specialist help is delayed. He said the company is looking at community training in the UAE as well.

The figures come from the company itself and were not independently verified in the report. Still, they point to a cost of the regional conflict that energy operators at ADIPEC have been weighing alongside physical security: getting injured staff out when airspace or airports are unavailable.