Sikorsky has sold four S-76C+ helicopters to Air Ambulance America for a Mexican aeromedical project. The aircraft will be delivered late this year for use in the Government funded You Are Safe in Mexico Association (YASMA) programme to promote tourism by providing emergency medical service coverage.
Austin, Texas-based Air Ambulance America won the contract to operate the YASMA programme in 1994, from Mexico's tourism ministry. It already operates an S-76B and fixed wing air ambulances in Mexico. It is building a network of clinics at airports across the country, says president Lex Owens.
Three of the S-76C+ will have aeromedical interiors accommodating two patients and four attendants. The fourth will be convertible between air ambulance, passenger transport and search and rescue roles. Owens says that 15 aircraft will be needed by 2006, not all of them S-76-sized. The S-76 was selected because of its range and speed, large cabin and single pilot instrument flight rules capability, he says.
The first new aeromedicalS-76C+ , delivered to AirEvac of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in late 1997, and was on display at Heli Expo.
Source: Flight International
