Metro Aviation, under contract with Airbus Helicopters, recently completed a new H145 for Boston MedFlight, a critical care transport service in New England. This is the third aircraft Metro has completed for Boston MedFlight at its completion center in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The H145 is equipped with Metro’s EMS Kit and is MedFlight’s first aircraft equipped with Outerlink’s IRIS system for satellite tracking, push-to-talk radio, flight data monitoring and voice and video recording.
“From a safety perspective, the H145 is a great addition to our fleet,” said Charles Blathras, chief operations manager for Boston MedFlight. “We have GPS approaches throughout the city of Boston, so the 4-axis autopilot is a useful feature and the robust engines provide a significant margin of safety. The majority of landings at our receiving hospitals in the city are made on rooftops. We’ve had our eye on the H145 for a long time.”
Boston MedFlight will have two more H145 aircraft completed by Metro, bringing their fleet to three H145s, an S-76 and a King Air 200.
“Metro produces a high-end product and their customer support has been invaluable to us,” said Blathras. “If we aren’t flying, people in our service area aren’t getting transported when they need us the most, and Metro is very responsive to our needs. They do a great job keeping us in the air.”
Boston MedFlight was formed as a non-profit air transport service by a consortium of hospitals in 1985. The program annually transports close to 4,100 critically ill and injured patients from four bases, including approximately 1,800 by air.
