Erlanger Health System is still accepting patients via air medical transport as its Life Force helicopters remain grounded following a nonfatal crash Thursday evening in Macon County, North Carolina.
"We are working with other air medical providers around the region to continue providing patient care transportation while our program is temporarily grounded," a Friday post on Life Force's Facebook page states.
Robbie Tester, Erlanger vice president of patient logistics, said in a statement Friday that Erlanger had suspended Life Force operations until crews felt ready to return and that "safety is of the utmost concern to our program."
Erlanger spokesperson Blaine Kelley said in an email Friday afternoon that Life Force's status had not changed. Kelley did not provide an anticipated timeline for how long Erlanger's five other air ambulances would be grounded, stating "until the crews feel ready to return to service."
The aircraft involved in the crash, identified as Life Force 6, is typically stationed in Cherokee County, North Carolina, and covers a 150-mile radius. At the time of the crash, it was carrying a patient from Erlanger's satellite hospital in Murphy, North Carolina, to Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina.
(READ MORE: Chattanooga's Erlanger Health System upgrades Life Force with new helicopter)
In addition to the North Carolina-based helicopter, Life Force has air ambulance stations in Cleveland, Winchester and Sparta, Tennessee, as well as Blue Ridge and Calhoun, Georgia. Combined, the helicopters transport roughly 3,000 patients each year, according to data previously shared by Erlanger.
Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / A Life Force helicopter lands at Erlanger Medical Center on Tuesday, February 8, 2022. Helicoper N558MT was the aircraft that crashed in North Carolina.The full fleet consists of six aircraft: four twin-engine IFR helicopters and two single-engine VFR helicopters.
Crews are comprised of a pilot, flight nurse and flight paramedic at each base who provide on-the-scene and in-flight critical care treatment, such as trauma service, heart and stroke intervention, pediatric care, and high-risk labor and delivery services to patients on board, according to a past news release from Erlanger.
Each aircraft is owned by Texas-based Med-Trans, which provides the flight crew members, while Erlanger staffs the clinicians on board. Med-Trans had not responded to questions concerning the crash as of this story's publication.
Med-Trans partners with 42 other health systems across the nation to provide air medical transport, including HCA's TriStar Division in Nashville and the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, according to the company's website.
Kelley said the aircraft involved in Thursday's crash was an EC-135, which is a twin-engine helicopter produced by Airbus.
Of the four people on board, one crew member was evaluated and released from a local hospital, while the others were admitted to Mission in Asheville and are in stable condition, Erlanger officials said in a statement Friday.
Thursday's crash was the first in the 34-year history of the Erlanger's Life Force program, officials said.
"We are grateful for all the calls, texts and concern shown by our staff, public safety agencies and our air ambulance community from across the country," the Life Force Facebook post states. "We do not have information regarding the circumstances or cause of the crash but understand that the FAA and NTSB will be investigating, as is routine."
The FAA is the Federal Aviation Administration. The NTSB is National Transportation Safety Board.
Contact Elizabeth Fite at efite@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6673.
This photo provided by Macon County, N.C., 911 shows a medical transport helicopter that crashed west of the Macon County Airport in the Burningtown community around 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 9, 2023. Macon County Sheriff Brent Holbrooks said the EC-135 helicopter was traveling to Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., when it crashed in Macon County, N.C. (Macon County 911 via AP)