AirLink or Life Flight?
For many years Central Oregonians including Black Butte Ranch owners and guests have relied upon AirLink (formerly Airlife) to provide air medical transport when the needs arose. In February 2012, a second air transport organization (Life Flight Network) based an operation out of the Redmond Airport, bringing a second airmedical service to our area.
Life Flight’s Redmond helicopter has become the closest air medical resource for Black Butte Ranch, so it is now the helicopter that is dispatched first when an air ambulance is requested by emergency personnel.
Initially, if you had a membership for air-medical service with either “non-profit” provider (Life Flight or AirLink), you were covered by both through reciprocal agreements.
Recently however, St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon sold the AirLink flight program to new owners which is effective June 1, 2012. The new “for-profit” owners of AirLink are Metro Aviation, Inc from Louisiana and Med-Trans Corporation from Texas who have announced they will not have reciprocal agreements with any air service providers in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Utah, and Wyoming.
For membership details on each service, click the logos above.