Home base: Mountain Creek
MORRISTOWN Mountain Creek's helipad will be home base for a state-of-the-art medevac helicopter.
Atlantic Ambulance Corp., a subsidiary of Atlantic Health System, the parent company of Morristown, Overlook and Newton Medical Centers and Goryeb Childrens Hospital, last week launched its third medevac helicopter into the skies above northern New Jersey.
Atlantic Air Three will be based in Netcong but will respond to medevac calls from the helipad at the Mountain Creek Ski Resort. All three choppers transport patients from trauma scenes as well as between facilities.
The new chopper will provide service primarily to the residents of Sussex and Passaic counties. The addition of the helicopter to serve this area follows Atlantic Health Systems merger with Newton Medical Center last year.
Earlier this year an attempt failed to relocate the Vernon Urgent Care Center, which is operated by Atlantic Heath System, to the Appalachian Hotel at the Mountain Creek property on Route 94. The Urgent Care Center is located not far from the resort, also on Route 94.
Mountain Creek representatives brought the proposal before the Vernon Town Council. After several contentious public meetings, Vernon Council members rejected the proposal, saying the plan wasn't a good fit for the site; they also suggested the move could lower property values. The proposal had met with vocal disapproval from members of the public, which would seem to have helped contribute to its failure.
New chopper expands service With the growth of our parent organization, Atlantic Health System, Atlantic Air Three will ensure that people in the communities we serve will have transportation to the services they need as quickly as possible, said Richard Donovan, director of Atlantic Ambulance.
Atlantic Ambulance also has Atlantic Air One, based in Netcong, and Atlantic Air Two, based in Millville.
All three helicopters are EC-135 Eurocopters, a model of helicopter which is quieter than most others, due to a fan enclosed in the tail fin, and 10 blades, arranged asymmetrically in the rotor hub of the tail fin, which spread sound out over several frequencies. The trio of choppers also boasts all of the same features, including the Atlantic Ambulance/PHI crew. The helicopters have state-of-the-art equipment such as GPS, radar, an aircraft collision avoidance system and four different communications radios, including satellite.
While the company says Atlantic Air Three will be based in Netcong with Atlantic Air One, chopper three will respond to medevac calls from the helipad at the Mountain Creek Ski Resort.
Six-year anniversary Atlantic Air One, the teal-colored medevac helicopter that has become a fixture in the skies of New Jersey, this year marked six years of service. Since its launch in 2006, Air One has made nearly 400 flights each year, transporting patients from accident and other emergency scenes as well as to and from Morristown Medical Center and other medical facilities, according to a press release from the company. Morristown Medical Center is named a Level I Regional Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons and a Level II by the state of New Jersey, and other medical facilities.
Atlantic Air One, based at a hangar in Netcong, is staffed by nurses and paramedics from Atlantic Ambulance, and piloted by PHI Inc., which owns and maintains the helicopter. In 2007, on its first anniversary, the crew of Air One became the first in New Jersey to be trained to use night-vision goggles, a special enhancement that allows the pilots and crew to more safely fly at night.
In December 2010, Atlantic Ambulance launched Atlantic Air Two, which began providing medevac service to the southern-New Jersey regions of Cumberland, Burlington, Ocean, Atlantic, Gloucester, Salem, Cape May counties. Atlantic Air Two, is based at the Millville Municipal Airport in Cumberland County, and flies patients from emergency scenes to Cooper University Hospital as well as to and from other medical facilities.