On September 26, Aircare Solutions Group (Booth No. N1736) held a grand opening for its new emergency procedures training facility in Long Beach, Calif. The new facility is equipped with Aircare’s Facts VIII full-motion cabin simulator, the company’s largest, as well as hypoxia awareness trainers, a walk-in fire trainer and BBJ slide and exits.

To help flight crew and passengers deal with lithium battery fires in portable devices, the Facts VIII trainer features a simulated laptop battery fire. The Aircare Access Assistance division offers products to help deal with these types of fires, such as the FireSock lithium battery risk-management system, as well as smoke hoods and filter hoods for all types of smoke and fire incidents.

Aircare Access Assistance also provides tele-medical and tele-assistance services for flight departments traveling around the world. Services include medical support, flight tracking, security reporting, concierge services, lost luggage and documentation support and remote prescription.

Aircare Solutions conducted its first peer-support class last month at the Long Beach training facility. The session–which covered critical-incident stress management, listening skills, communication techniques and debriefing and defusing skills–was part of the Critical Incident Response Plan (CIRP) that the company unveiled earlier this year. The program provides flight departments with mental and health professionals and an aviation peer-support network. Flight departments can add CIRP to their existing emergency response plans whether or not they do business with Aircare, which will bill only for costs associated with providing a mental health professional and for peer support expenses.

“We recognize the incredible importance that critical incident stress management plays in helping get individuals and departments to the other side of the critical incident with good mental health,” said Jeffrey Roberts, CEO of Aircare Solutions Group. “Many flight departments haven’t considered critical incident stress management as part of their plan or don’t have access to these kinds of resources. Making this available to all of the business aviation community is simply the right thing to do.”