Intermountain Life Flight Air Rescue Crews to Practice Hoist Rescues Monday at Little Dell Reservoir

Summer is around the corner, which means that Utahns and others will be taking to Utah's backcountry and mountain ranges to enjoy some of the most beautiful landscape in the nation. Most of those climbers, hikers and other outdoor adventurers will be safe. But some may fall, be accidentally injured or become stranded and find themselves in a dangerous situation in which they can't get out by themselves. 

That's when Intermountain Life Flight comes to the rescue. 

Intermountain Life Flight is Intermountain Healthcare's air rescue and transport service, which includes a fleet of medical aircraft, including powerful twin-engine, high-altitude Agusta helicopters designed to perform intricate hoist rescues of injured or stranded people in Utah's scenic canyons and mountain ranges. 

On Monday, Life Flight crews will practice a series of "live" hoist rescues around Little Dell Reservoir to prepare for the upcoming summer season. The hoist rescues will cover a number of scenarios in which injured recreationalists are injured or stranded and need to be airlifted to safety. 

NEWS MEDIA ARE INVITED. 

Intermountain Life Flight is the first and only civilian air ambulance in the nation equipped and licensed to perform hoist rescues, in which a paramedic is lowered to an injured or stranded person on a specially-designed hoist attached to the helicopter. The Life Flight hoist team is comprised of pilots, specially-trained nurses who operate the hoist and direct the pilot, and hoist rescuer paramedics who are lowered to and package the patient for extraction. Life Flight operates Agusta twin-engine helicopters equipped for hoist operations that are well suited for high-altitude performance. 

Monday, May 5, 2014 – 9am to Noon 

Little Dell Reservoir (enter main entrance and then proceed right)