Orcas Island Fire and Rescue emergency medical personnel and the new fire recruit class had an opportunity to learn about the new Airlift Northwest Helicopter that will be serving critical care needs on Orcas and the other San Juan Islands. The 2007 EuroCopter EC 135 T2+, based in Bellingham, went into service on Jan. 31 and provides a number of improvements.

“This aircraft can fly on one engine perfectly safely,” said pilot Randy Nash. “It can hover at a higher altitude. It has much better endurance. It has enough fuel for us to fly with a 200-pound patient, the pilot and the two RNs back and forth from Seattle without refueling. Before this we had to refuel in Seattle.”

Safety features include completely isolating the patient from the pilot to remove any chance of a patient inadvertently hitting the pilot or the controls. The helicopter has better instrument flight rules so that it can fly in worse weather than previous helicopters and a special GPS approach that allows the helicopter to fly to the Port of Orcas in all types of weather.

Airlift Northwest is contracted to fly patients off-island to regional hospitals. Nearly half of Airlift Northwest’s Bellingham dispatches are to San Juan County.