You can explain the physics of it until you鈥檙e choking on variables, but when an AW139 helicopter teeters off the ground, its whomping, six-metre blades spitting rocks and conjuring dust clouds, it feels like magic.
The brand-new chopper, which belongs to the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service Foundation (STARS), whirled into Jasper Sept. 4 to give local rescue workers an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the powerful piece of machinery.
STARS is a non-profit organization, partnered with Alberta Health Services, that has been swooping in to provide emergency medical transport across Western Canada for nearly 30 years.
According to Corinne Edwards, director of STARS鈥檚 Edmonton base, the people on board are some of the best.
When someone calls in a helicopter, 90 per cent of the time it鈥檚 deadly serious, she explains, so it鈥檚 important to have the most highly trained and experienced medical staff and pilots possible. Give them the mind-boggling array of medical equipment housed in the AW139, and they become a formidable life-saving enterprise.
The custom-built interior of the $26.5-million chopper holds everything from an on-board ultrasound machine to special fluid-warming machines that help hypothermia sufferers.
鈥淭here鈥檚 probably better equipment on board than in our local hospital,鈥� someone jokes as representatives from the Jasper Fire Department, RCMP and Parks Canada cluster around the gleaming machine and pepper the crew with questions.
Among the chatter, terms like 鈥渉ead winds,鈥� 鈥渃all signs鈥� and 鈥渄ecimal degrees鈥� are thrown around.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important for the municipalities we cover to be familiar with [the helicopter] and everything it can do; to know what it鈥檚 capable of and its limitations,鈥� said Edwards.
As she talks, Parks Canada staff approach her and pilot Tom Miles, coordinating call signs and radio frequencies.
Miles has been with STARS for seven years. His military background is evident in his soft but forceful cadence and clipped words. Standing straight-backed but relaxed beside the chopper, he explained why it is so important.
鈥淭he ability of this thing to fly faster and further will give us a chance to save a lot more people,鈥� he said.
In emergency rescues it鈥檚 all about the 鈥済olden hour鈥濃�攖he first hour after a traumatic injury that usually determines if someone will survive.
Miles said the new AW139 can travel nearly 280 km/hr, 25 per cent faster than the old STARS helicopter. That means they can go much further in the golden hour and have a better chance of saving someone鈥檚 life.
The helicopter鈥檚 eight-cubic-metre interior also means it can carry two patients at a time, which is critical at accidents involving numerous people.
Trevor Nichols
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