A helicopter takes part in a fire-fighting rescue drill at Diamond Plaza in HCM City’s District 1 in 2013. (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi MinhCity authorities are considering requiring high-rises of 20 floors or more tohave helipads for search-and-rescue missions during natural disasters or fires.
Tran Trong Tuan, director of the city’sDepartment of Construction, said the helipads could also serve tourismpurposes.
Other buildings, such as hospitals and publicstructures, should also have helipads, they said.
Colonel Le Tan Buu, director of the FireFighting and Prevention Police, said the city would use military forces’helicopters for search-and-rescue missions.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thien Tong, former head of aeronauticalengineering at the HCM City-based Polytechnic University, agreed with the move,saying that fires in high-rises were especially dangerous because of the numberof people inside.
For large buildings, construction of a helipadwould not be expensive or complicated, he said.
"The city needs to encourage qualifiedinvestors to build helipads on high-rises, but not on all of them, sincelanding is not always needed," he added.
Prof. Dr Nguyen Van Hiep, former dean of the HCMCity-based Polytechnic University, said the city should require helipads on newhigh-rises only.
Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son questioned the city’splan, saying the capability of fighting fires with helicopters was not high,especially on tall buildings.
Landing can be difficult, and each landing wouldsave only around 10 people because of the capacity of the helicopter, he said.
Colonel Le Tan Buu said it would be difficult torequire all of the city’s hundreds of high-rises of more than 20 floors to havea helipad.
Vo Huy Cuong, deputy chief of the Civil AviationAuthority of Vietnam (CAAV), said that construction of specialised airports,including helipads, must be approved by the Ministry of Defence.
The Ministry of Defence would approve helipadsonly after consulting the Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Transport andthe municipal and provincial people’s committees.
The Ministry of Defence would also grantpermission for helicopter use.
Early this year, the municipal People’sCommittee asked agencies to review a plan on constructing helipads on 20-storybuildings to improve the quality of firefighting and fire prevention.
Recently, the Southern Vietnam HelicopterCompany conducted a piloted flight permitted by CAAV at the Sai Gon TimesSquare building in District 1.
The construction of the helipad on the rooftopof the Sai Gon Times Square was previously approved by the general staff of theVietnam People’s Army.
To help search-and-rescue missions, flightroutes for helicopters were also allowed to be connected to the venue.
Helipads exist on a number of high-risebuildings, including the Bitexco Financial Tower, Diamond Plaza in District 1,and Tan Son Nhat Sai Gon Hotel in Phu Nhuan District, among others. - VNA
VNA
