EC135
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Rotorcraft
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
Dispatched to ZZZ for patient pickup for an inter-facility hospital transfer. I was monitoring the ZZZ Unicom frequency at least 30 nm out. I made an inbound call at approx. 10 nm out and another one at approximately 4 nm out. No response was heard from any aircraft. Upon arrival at the airport and on short final for landing to the ramp for shutdown; I heard someone on a handheld radio say 'Helicopter approaching; we have jumpers in the air'. My crewmember up front and I scanned the area and saw one single jumper at approximately 1500 AGL with the chute deployed. It was not in a position to be a hazard to our final approach so I continued on short final and landed to the ramp and shutdown. [A military organization] was conducting jump operations in a C-130 at the time of our arrival. At no time from approximately 30-40 nm out until arrival did I ever hear any calls on Unicom from a C-130 and did not hear any 'jumpers away' calls. In addition there was another helicopter that approached from the same direction and landed a few minutes after I did. I talked to him and he said he never heard any 'jumpers away' call. I also heard other small fixed-wing aircraft on the Unicom as I was approaching. The first call I heard regarding any jump operations was from the person on the handheld radio on short final. After shutdown; a representative from the [military] unit came and talked to me. I explained to him what I explained above. He mentioned he would have to submit a report to the FAA since there was a jumper at 1500 AGL with the chute deployed. After the medcrew returned in the ground ambulance we loaded the patient. The jump operations had ceased at that time and we departed without incident and completed our medical mission.In addition to monitoring the Unicom frequency and making the inbound position reports and calls as I did; I would query on Unicom if there were any aircraft in the area and specifically any jump aircraft in the area.
EC135 medevac pilot reported encountering unannounced jumpers in the air on arrival to an uncontrolled airport.