Narrative:

We repositioned for day basing to [an island] clinic helipad. The unfenced helipad is between the clinic and the main road in the small town. Usually; when we operate from this pad; the local EMS folks provide security and block traffic on the road during our arrival and departure. Yesterday; there were no EMS folks; police; or other security; and the local farmer's market was going on directly across the street. It was as if no one knew we were coming. We observed cars parked along both sides of the street and several people in the vicinity. We briefed how we would abort the approach if there was any incursion into our safety zone or any doubt about the safety of the situation. I altered our normal approach path so as not to overfly the tents and landed without incident. Upon touchdown; both nurses immediately exited the aircraft to provide crowd control as people started to wander in our direction. A couple of hours later we received a flight request from another nearby island. I firmly instructed the current crowd of folks to please keep a safe distance; across the street; while we started and told the med crew to stand outside the aircraft until I was ready for takeoff. Start; takeoff; and departure were uneventful. In hindsight; I don't feel the situation was within my normal rather broad safety margin and sincerely wish I had made a more conservative decision. I don't believe I violated anything; and don't believe we were unsafe; but the potential for something to go wrong was real. I won't be returning to that helipad again without some sort of security/crowd control.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMS helicopter pilot described landing and departure at an in-town clinic with no staff available for security; traffic or crowd control. Although no anomalies occurred; reporter recommended no operations at the facility without security and crowd control present.

Narrative: We repositioned for day basing to [an island] clinic helipad. The unfenced helipad is between the clinic and the main road in the small town. Usually; when we operate from this pad; the local EMS folks provide security and block traffic on the road during our arrival and departure. Yesterday; there were no EMS folks; police; or other security; and the local farmer's market was going on directly across the street. It was as if no one knew we were coming. We observed cars parked along both sides of the street and several people in the vicinity. We briefed how we would abort the approach if there was any incursion into our safety zone or any doubt about the safety of the situation. I altered our normal approach path so as not to overfly the tents and landed without incident. Upon touchdown; both nurses immediately exited the aircraft to provide crowd control as people started to wander in our direction. A couple of hours later we received a flight request from another nearby island. I firmly instructed the current crowd of folks to please keep a safe distance; across the street; while we started and told the med crew to stand outside the aircraft until I was ready for takeoff. Start; takeoff; and departure were uneventful. In hindsight; I don't feel the situation was within my normal rather broad safety margin and sincerely wish I had made a more conservative decision. I don't believe I violated anything; and don't believe we were unsafe; but the potential for something to go wrong was real. I won't be returning to that helipad again without some sort of security/crowd control.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.