Acadian Air Med Partnership with Bristow U.S. LLC

July 19, 2017-Acadian Air Med, a division of Acadian Ambulance based in Lafayette, Louisiana, has partnered with Bristow U.S. LLC for the past 37 years. Through the partnership, Air Med provides flight paramedics, rescue swimmers and hoist operators to Bristow in service to Shell Offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Bristow recently announced that it was awarded a contract with Hess Corporation for medevac and search-and-rescue (SAR) services in the Gulf of Mexico. From Bristow’s press release, as part of the contract, Hess joins Shell Offshore as the second member of the new SAR consortium formed by Bristow, which guarantees SAR and medevac response to members 24 hours a day, seven days a week, covering its entire Gulf of Mexico operations.

“We are honored to provide this critical lifesaving service on behalf of Hess,” said Robert Phillips, Bristow Americas vice president. “We are drawing on our years of experience of operating SAR around the world, including for all of the U.K. on behalf of the HM Coastguard, and partnering with Acadian Air Med to deliver the highest standard of rescue service and medical care in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Bristow will operate the new service from its standalone SAR facility at the South Lafourche Airport in Galliano, dedicating a Sikorsky S-92 and a Leonardo AW139 aircraft for the contract. The S-92 dedicated to this service is the only all-weather heavy SAR aircraft operating in the Gulf of Mexico, with the speed and extended operational range to reach ultra-deepwater rigs and installations, and the necessary capacity to respond quickly to multiple-casualty situations.

Onboard the aircraft are two pilots, a rescue hoist operator, a certified rescue swimmer, and a critical care transport-flight paramedic. This advanced aircraft capability is supported by onsite contingency operations consisting of air-droppable survival kits, linked raft systems, marine vessel salvage pumps, and point of injury industrial confined space and technical rescue.

“We have worked with Bristow for the past 37 years, providing offshore services and support, and we enjoy the positive working relationship with their employees. We appreciate the opportunity to have worked with them on this kind of partnership for the past 10 years, and we look forward to many more years of service and saving lives in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Acadian Air Med Vice President Erroll Babineaux.

Consortium members also receive emergency dispatch service provided by nationally registered EMTs and certified with the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch through Acadian Ambulance’s Dispatch Centers. The highly trained medical dispatchers use ProQA Dispatch software that provides an unmatched level of medical instructions over the phone until the helicopter arrives.

Acadian Air Med was founded in 1981 and currently operates a fleet of nine medically configured helicopters and seven fixed-wing aircraft from seven base stations, strategically located throughout South Louisiana and Southeast Texas.

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