El Paso Times
LAS CRUCES, Texas — The city’s emergency-response helicopters have the same task as always — but you’ll soon see a new name and color scheme on the aircraft.
Southwest MedEvac has been combined with Native Air, another unit of Omniflight Helicopters, the company that operates Southwest MedEvac.
Founded in Las Cruces in 1994, the helicopter service provides a way to quickly treat and transport patients — such as those injured in car and motorcycle crashes, and victims of shootings and stabbings — to hospitals, including University Medical Center of El Paso, the only Level-1 Trauma Center within a 270-mile radius.
“The Federal Aviation Administration has urged air medical service firms to reduce the number of stand-alone operations,” Omniflight CEO Tom Leverton said in a written statement. “Combining two major air medical service providers in the New Mexico-Arizona region will benefit patients and area medical providers.”
Native Air, with 300 employees based in Arizona, 14 helicopters and three fixed-wing aircraft, absorbed Southwest MedEvac and its 150 employees, 10 helicopters and four fixed-wing aircraft as part of its expansion into New Mexico and Texas.
All pilots, flight nurses, flight paramedics and other personnel and equipment will continue to operate in the markets they now serve, and all staff and service locations — including facilities at 2805 Las Vegas Court and at the Las Cruces International Airport — will remain intact, according to Omniflight.
Copyright 2010 El Paso Times, a MediaNews Group Newspaper
All Rights Reserved