Mercy Flights, a Medford, Oregon-based civil air ambulance company, is the newest member of the Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF). The nonprofit ACSF now includes more than 310 aviation-centric businesses, including charter and fractional operators. Mercy Flight will now participate in the ACSF’s third-party facilitation of the FAA’s voluntary Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP).
The voluntary program, administered in cooperation with the FAA, “is designed to help operators identify, report and resolve potential safety issues without fear of reprisal from the FAA,” according to the ACSF. The program incorporates tracking and corrective action recommendations to assist in enhancing and improving participating members’ overall safety culture.
With 73 years of history, Mercy Flights completed 24,878 transports in 2022. It operates a Beechcraft King Air C90GTx turboprop twin as well as a Bell 407GX helicopter. The fixed-wing King Air is staffed by two pilots, a flight nurse and a paramedic. The single-pilot Bell 407 also is crewed with a flight nurse and paramedic. CEO Sheila Clough said, “Addressing safety through the auspices of the ACSF and its ASAP is one more extremely important milestone in [our] plan and our mission.”
