Local residents can rest a little easier knowing there’s state-of-the-art aircraft fueled up and ready to fly emergency medical cases out of the North Bend Airport in just about any kind of weather.
Emergency Airlift is entering its third year of service in North Bend, says marketing director Denise Alexander, whose husband Ed Langerveld is the firm’s chief pilot and driving force. “Ed’s made this work,” she says. “It’s doing very well. We’re growing very fast and we have flights nearly every day.”
Patients arrive by ground ambulance at the company’s hangar south of the main terminal and are loaded inside the hangar onto one of two specially-equipped aircraft. Considered “mobile intensive care units in the air,” they’re staffed with crews trained in critical life-saving interventions, Denise explains.
The planes have flown to medical facilities in Eugene, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other hospitals within the United States, she says.
Their primary aircraft is a Commander 690, a long-range, all-weather turboprop. ”The cabin’s pressurized, which is important because patients need to be at a certain altitude,” says Denise.
All this costs money, of course, and this is definitely a business. An airlift costs between $10,000 and $15,000, notes Denise. That’s why the company has unveiled an annual membership program that offers coverage for $25 per household. “People don’t think about it until the last minute, or until they need the service,” she says. It’s an incredible deal.”
She notes that “patients” formerly paid more for the service because the aircraft had to come from outside the local area. “What’s more, stormy weather or icy conditions could keep them from landing. With Emergency Airlift’s craft based in North Bend, that’s no longer an issue.
Ed is also a helicopter pilot, and envisions doing more “scene work” with it, airlifting victims from dunes, highways, or woodland accidents.
Emergency Airlift is part of a larger operation that includes the Ocean Air passenger division and an aircraft fueling service. Ocean Air provides charters with several aircraft, including a 9-passenger Metroliner, and operate out of a luxurious new facility at the north end of the airport. It features a pilot’s weather briefing room, lounge, “snooze room,” and such amenities as flatscreen TVs, fireplace, fountain-even a putting green.
“It’s a successful story,” says Denise, but not one her husband intended when he retired in 2000 from a 20-year career in corporate aviation. A native of Hillsboro, Oregon, Ed was familiar with the Oregon coast, and he and Denise settled in Florence “because it’s beautiful,” she says. A tragic accident brought him out of retirement. Denise explains that a boy was hurt on a nearby lake, and “ended up losing his arm. The air ambulance couldn’t get in because of fog.” Determined to start an all weather service, Ed launched the company in Florence, and then branched out to North Bend.
Denise says their potential market has wide horizon. “There’s a need for our services, even internationally. We just bought another aircraft, and are looking at another… and we’re in the market for a long range jet.
For the moment, though, she wants to get the word out to the local community, especially about the $25 annual membership program. “We want people to know we’re here,” she says. “The peace of mind knowing we’re here.”
