BUFFALO, N.Y. — For the second time since June, Mercy Flight has made a $9.25 million investment in another helicopter, the first time in three years it’s had a full fleet of four copters.
The Bell 429 N505TJ helicopter, dedicated Oct. 11 in honor of late founder Douglas Baker, will give the nonprofit emergency services company expanded access to cover Western New York.
“We’ve had to try to work smart and we also had to depend on surrounding agencies. And sometimes – totally against anything we like – we had to say no and depend on our ground partners to take care of the patients,” said Margaret Ferrentino, CEO. “That was probably one of the hardest things, to have to say no sometimes is heart-wrenching.”
The third helicopter, a Bell 429 N09TJ, was acquired in June and dedicated in memory of the late pilot, James Sauer, who along with flight instructor Stewart Dietrick, died in a training accident in April 2022 that also destroyed a copter. The first helicopter was damaged in October 2021 during a hard landing in Genesee County and was unable to be repaired.
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