Airbus Helicopters recognizes air medical programs celebrating milestone anniversaries

As the leading provider of helicopters to the air medical transport industry, Airbus Helicopters looks forward each year to celebrating programs reaching milestone anniversaries. Though unable to recognize them all in person at AMTC this year, the team at Airbus would like to highlight customers who were at the show celebrating 40 and 45 years of service. 

Allegheny LifeFlight - Pittsburgh, PA

Allegheny LifeFlight began operations 45 years ago in 1978. At the time, they were the first air medical service of their kind in the northeastern U.S. Airbus has been a part of the program’s story since they first began operations with a single Alouette helicopter.

Today, in addition to serving Pittsburgh, their reach extends across western Pennsylvania, southeastern Ohio, northern West Virginia, and western Maryland, where they provide critical care services from the scene of an accident or a healthcare facility. LifeFlight has completed more than 75,000 missions — working side-by-side with EMS providers and community hospitals across the four-state area. Throughout the decades, their team has never lost sight of their focus on providing the highest quality of care for their patients.

CareFlight - Dayton, OH

CareFlight is known across the country for providing high-quality transport in the region to Miami Valley Hospital’s Level 1 Trauma Center. The program began 40 years ago in 1983 as the first air medical program in the region and the 65th civilian air ambulance program in the nation. They have since grown to serve an area spanning most of Ohio and parts of West Virginia, Michigan, Kentucky, and Indiana.

The CareFlight team have been leaders in the industry from the very beginning, notably owning the first operational AS365N3+ in the U.S. They’ve served patients on more than 78,000 flights, providing each with advanced care at a moment’s notice.

Life Flight Network - Portland, OR

Life Flight Network is celebrating 45 years of serving the Northwest, having begun operations with an Alouette III. When the program began in 1978 as Emanuel Life Flight, it was one of the first hospital-based air ambulances on the West Coast and only the fourth in the nation. Since that time, Life Flight Network has grown to provide helicopter, fixed-wing, and ground ambulance transport throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.

The program’s accolades include being twice named AAMS Program of the Year, and also recognized with the AAMS Neonatal and Pediatric Transport Award of Excellence.

MedStar - Washington, D.C.

MedStar Washington Hospital Center purchased its first twin-engine helicopter and established MedSTAR Transport in 1983. On July 3 of that year the team transported their first patient, who had suffered a spinal-cord injury, to MedStar Washington Hospital Center.  Since then, they’ve grown to transport about 6,000 patients each year to and from MedStar Health facilities throughout the Baltimore and greater Washington, D.C., area - including about 2,000 medevac missions each year with their H135 family helicopters strategically located throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

University of Michigan Survival Flight - Ann Arbor, MI

University of Michigan Survival Flight, the original flight service in Michigan, began operations in Ann Arbor 40 years ago with a single A-Star. The program now uses their fleet of H155s to care for critical-care patients facing life-threatening conditions. Since beginning operations, the Survival Flight team has safely transported more than 57,000 critically ill and injured patients, and lifesaving organs, across the 48 continental states as well as Canada and Mexico.