Mayo Clinic Health System acquires a brand new aircraft

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - Mayo Clinic Health System acquires a brand new aircraft. Mankato is the very first of the Mayo System to receive the new Helicopter.

“We aren’t messing around with these things and time is what saves lives,” said Mayo Clinic Ambulance nurse, Heather Hilke.

In Mankato, Mayo Clinic Health System is the first one to receive one of these new helicopters for Mayo Ambulance’s fleet.

“We have the capability to take right now full of fuel, our crew and at least 120 kilo patients before having to reduce the amount of weight that we have on board,” said Mayo Clinic Ambulance pilot, Kei Schutte

The new choppers are replacing Mayo’s older aircraft.

“Now we can have more fuel on board the aircraft and know that we can still go over to the hospital, pick up and maybe go on a longer flight where we don’t have to refuel before going to pick up the patient,” said Schutte.

Pilots say the improvements are in safety and higher weight limits.

“We didn’t before, we’d have to actually drop the crew off, take off, fly around, burn the fuel off and then come back and land to be able to pick that patient,” said Schutte.

The new helicopter services kicked off on May 25, after training wrapped up ahead of schedule.

The aircraft has already transported around a dozen patients.

“We were about 20 minutes to get off the ground, but by the end of this shift we were down to about that 10 minute range, which is what we’re looking for,” said Schutte.

The other two new helicopters will be in Eau Claire and Rochester.

Mayo Clinic Health System says the other two will be operational at the end of the year.

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