BERT gets air ambulance
This evening the Belize Emergency Response Team, BERT received a gift of a twin engine aircraft, to provide air ambulance service from Belize to the United States and Central America. The plane was purchased from the Wagners Foundation in the United States, after the money was raised by the Burlington Illinois Rotary Club. It is not the first time that the club, which works with the Rotary Club of Belize, has come to the aid of Belizeans. In the past the club has donated two ambulances and a small twin engine aircraft.
Bill Stone, Member, Burlington Rotary Club
“About an year and a half ago, we were made aware that there was need for a twin engine aircraft, to evacuated people that need…you know with bad health problems that needed to be evacuated out of the city of Belize. And so we started to work with other Rotary clubs in our area. In fact our whole district is involved. We had to raise the $135,000 roughly, which is what the airplane costs.”
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
On Wednesday the plane was flown to Belize by Wayne Fletcher and should be ready for air ambulance service in one week. Some major modifications were made in order for the plane to provide the emergency service.
Wayne Fletcher, U.S Pilot
“To increase the size of the entrance door for the patient, it’s over twice the size of what a stock door would be and that’s to make it easier for the patient to get in and out. Also there are vortex generators added to the front of the wings and to the tail, which makes the airplane more controllable at slower speeds. Extra fuel tanks are added to give us about an hour and a half of range, so roughly another 350, 400 miles range. And an auto pilot was added, so on longer flights the pilots would have some relief and wouldn’t get fatigued during the flight.”
Jacqueline Woods
“You brought the aircraft in on Wednesday and now you’ll be in charge of the responsibility of training some pilots, who will be doing the flights.”
Wayne Fletcher
“Yes, so far I have one pilot who’s completed his training and he is the main pilot for the Wings of Hope/BERT. And there is one other pilot that I have started training with. I will be training with him later this week, and two other pilots that I will be working with and hopefully when I leave, the four of them will be qualified to fly the airplane”
Yolanda Crombie, President, Rotary Club, Belize
“Jackie I think this is long overdue project, and Rotary was able to fill a need that is critical in our community, countrywide actually. When there is a medical emergency and an air ambulance is needed, we normally have to wait for a plane to come in, if the existing Wings of Hope plane isn’t able to make that trip. This is clearly a much larger plane than the existing one, and is able to do long distance medical evacuation.”
Jacqueline Woods
“This aircraft presently has a license to land in Miami and you said that arrangements are being made so that the plane can land in other countries as well?”
Yolanda Crombie
“The more frequently used destination is Guatemala and Merida. I understand from the BERT directory, that we are able to go to Merida and Guatemala at this point, and that the plane is U.S. registered, so there should be no difficulty in getting into the United States. I know that Galveston is another destination that the plane will travel to for the Shriner Hospital, to treat burn victims.”
The plane’s main pilot will be Evard Robinson who is a former pilot for the Belize Defence Force and Maya Airways. He is now working at BERT. For more information on the air ambulance call BERT at telephone number 90.
