Sky Connect LLC is
proud to announce its latest customer for aircraft tracking
services, EagleMed of Wichita, Kansas. Renowned for its critical
care transport service in the central United States, EagleMed
provides patient transport with a fleet of King Airs and
helicopters. With the implementation of Sky Connect TRACKER™,
EagleMed will quickly deploy mission oversight enhancements to
their critical care dispatch centers.
"Minutes mean lives", explains Allen Zon, EagleMed's Director of
Operations. "Our ability to respond rapidly to urgent transport
missions depends on our dispatchers' constant knowledge of the
location and status of each of our aircraft. With the addition of
TRACKER's automated real-time position data, displayed on maps of
our operational territory, the dispatchers can immediately
determine which and how many of our aircraft should be assigned to
a mission. This will dramatically improve our response times for
any type of mission regardless of weather conditions. We will have
the ability to proactively advise medical centers of patient ETAs
without having to constantly interrupt the flight crew for verbal
status reports. Fast response time, continual mission updates, and
reduced crew workloads are the keys to furthering EagleMed's
excellent reputation."
In addition to automatic position reporting, the TRACKER systems
for EagleMed will be outfitted with mission status interfaces.
Designed in partnership with EagleMed, these customized avionics
will enable the crew to initiate flight and patient status reports
by selecting dedicated buttons. Aircraft position, flight status,
and service availability will be displayed for the dispatchers
using Flight Explorer Professional® software. For conferring
with trauma center doctors about patient care or discussing mission
requirements with dispatchers, the crew will be able to place and
receive voice phone calls via the TRACKER system.
For EagleMed, assured communication
with each aircraft is paramount to their 24/7 critical care
transport service. After exploring all terrestrial and satellite
communications options, Mr. Zon concluded that Sky Connect's
TRACKER was the best solution. EagleMed missions are often
performed in remote, rural areas of their territory, so the flight
crews currently experience difficulties in maintaining contact with
the dispatch centers. Because Sky Connect TRACKER operates
everywhere on Earth using the Iridium satellite network, it will
immediately provide new consistently reliable communications
capabilities to EagleMed's fleet now and as EagleMed expands
service to other regions.
"We are excited about being a part of EagleMed's aggressive
campaign to rethink the way urgent care flight dispatching is
performed," notes Harlan Hamlin, Sky Connect's SVP for Business
Development. "Mr. Zon has shared his company's vision to change the
way dispatching has been done since the development of the critical
care transport industry. TRACKER's enhanced services will provide
EagleMed dispatchers with the decision-support tools needed to
effectively juggle all of the dynamics involved with managing air
assets, critical timelines, and customer expectations. Knowing that
these enhancements will help save lives is a particularly
satisfying aspect of this contract and this motivates us further to
work diligently with EagleMed to assure full TRACKER deployment by
the end of 2003."
About EagleMed: EagleMed, the largest privately
owned air ambulance service in Kansas, has been in business since
transporting their first patient in 1981. Headquartered in Wichita,
EagleMed serves Kansas and the central US region with a fleet of
four King Airs and five helicopters. EagleMed is one of just 91
CAMTS*-certified air ambulance services in the United States.
About Sky Connect LLC: Sky Connect LLC markets
the Sky Connect brand of telephony, data, and tracking products
manufactured by Icarus Instruments, Inc. Sky Connect is the
recognized leading brand of Iridium telephony systems for aircraft
with installations in all types of aircraft operating in all
regions of the world.