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Background. Administration of blood in the pre-hospital environment is becoming more feasible, particularly in helicopter emergency medicalservices (HEMS) during primary response and critical care transfers of major trauma patients. The main challenge in this environment ismaintaining a suitable thermal environment for blood transport during missions that may last several hours.Aim. To investigate whether a simple and cost-effective method of storage in a typical HEMS operation would provide an adequate thermalenvironment for blood.Method. A commercially available cooler box and ice packs were used to simulate a blood transport environment during HEMS missions overthree summer and three winter months. In-box temperature was monitored using an electronic thermometer and data logger.Results. Temperature data were recorded during 146 missions with a mean duration of 02:01:35 (95% confidence interval 01:46:25 - 02:16:46).A total of 344 temperature observations were done in the summer months and 384 in the winter months. All mean temperatures recordedin the cooler box were within the required 1 - 6°C range; however, of the total temperature observations recorded, 30% (102/344) duringsummer were >6°C while 8% (32/384) during winter were >6°C and 15% (59/384) were <1°C. The maximum temperature recorded overallwas 13°C and the minimum was −3°C.Conclusion. Low-cost, non-specialised materials used in a HEMS operation were not adequate for the safe transport of blood.