April 17, 2023
The ICSSAR Monday night team meeting closed with a field trip to meet the Cedar City Based Crew with Life Flight Medical Helicopter. Life Flight is staged at Intermountain Cedar City and is staffed 24/7 with a Pilot (12 hours on/12 hours off), ICU Flight Paramedic and Nurse. Our partnership with Life Flight is one that dates back quite a few years. Life Flight has been based out of St George Utah since 2011. However, the Cedar City base just opened about a month ago.
Your ICSSAR volunteers take online certification classes to ensure we operate safely around Helicopters and can establish appropriate and safe Landing Zones (LZ’s). It’s important for us to get to know our local medical helicopter crews to facilitate safe and efficient operation during an emergency.
First and foremost, the first hour the crew is activated is donated time, which is amazing to consider! The company will only charge if they transport a patient. For example, if we have a patient injured and Life Flight responds and is able to access the patient and bring them to us at Incident Command where there is a waiting ambulance, they will not charge us for assistance!
During Monday night’s meeting, the Pilot of Life Flight talked with us about his preferences as a pilot, as well as the capabilities of their Helicopter. When a Helicopter is operating at night, all crew members onboard are using high efficiency night goggles (pictured). This is very important for ICSSAR to be aware of. When the Helicopter is coming in for a landing at night, the Pilot asked that we ensure we dim all Vehicle, ATV and/or Snowmobile headlights.
You will notice in the pictures, the Helicopter has skids around the tires. Those are to facilitate landing in areas with deep snow. The skids will prevent the Helicopter from sinking into the snow, however, the wheels are still accessible for taxing on runways.
It was an absolute pleasure meeting the crew of Life Flight tonight. We look forward to a strong partnership with them. Thanks for the swag!
#IronCountySheriffSearchAndRescue #ICSSAR #WeWillAlwaysComeToYou #SoThatOthersMayLive #HelicoptersInSAR #LifeFlightUtah #IntermountainCedarCity
