AirLift Texas opens new Weslaco base
AirLift Texas, an air ambulance service run by Air Methods in collaboration with the Baylor Scott & White Health healthcare system, has opened a new base at the Mid Valley Airport in Weslaco
The new base was opened on 1 June, and is home to a Eurocopter EC130 single-engine light utility helicopter.
The base will serve the entire Rio Grande Valley region between Roma and South Padre Island, and initially has a crew four pilots, four paramedics, four nurses, and two mechanics.
“Weslaco is sort of centrally located — halfway between McAllen and Harlingen,” said Dunstin Ross, National Float Flight Paramedic at Air Methods. “It also gives us access to South Padre Island, which is really isolated with traffic — especially with one bridge, one way in and one way out.”
Ross added that: “We’ll be providing critical care services for the whole Valley. We’re not specifically contracted with any sort of hospital or EMS services. We’re here to partner with everybody in the Valley and the surrounding regions.”
Airlift Texas also operates from a second base at Waco Regional Airport, which serves Bell, McLennan, Falls and Coryell Counties, as well as the cities of Waco and Temple, and which opened in early 2021.