Alexandria, Va. (January 11, 2017) – Helicopter Association International (HAI) announced today that Era Search and Rescue, a service line of Era Group Inc., is the 2017 winner of HAI’s Salute to Excellence Airbus Helicopters Golden Hour Award. The award will be presented at HAI’s Salute to Excellence Awards dinner at HAI HELI-EXPO 2017 in Dallas.
Era pioneered the first U.S. commercial search-and-rescue (SAR) program, in partnership with Priority 1 Air Rescue (P1AR). Era’s SAR program has responded to more than 1,050 emergency calls from more than 70 companies in the Gulf of Mexico. Operating three SAR-equipped AW139 medium helicopters from Houma, La., and Galveston, Texas, Era was the first emergency flight services provider to configure the AW139 for full SAR mission capabilities. As the only search and rescue provider that is medically licensed in Texas and Louisiana, Era’s SAR program provides 24-hour offshore advanced life support medical care on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
The SAR program is supported by four Era dispatchers certified as Emergency Medical Dispatchers; 18 pilots qualified in instrument flight rules, night-vision goggles, air ambulance, and hoist rescues; and 36 P1AR medically qualified rescue specialists — making it the most comprehensive program serving the OCS. Era’s SAR program can support local, state and federal crisis emergency response efforts for various emergency situations.
Era SAR is considered one of the world’s premier search and rescue operations, able to conduct emergency response in extreme environments. Era participated in the Coast Guard’s Arctic Technology Evaluation 2015 Search and Rescue Exercise on Alaska’s North Slope to identify the benefits to search and rescue missions of the integration of manned and unmanned aerial systems. This exercise showed the capabilities and expertise of participants in support of arctic SAR efforts and other such missions. Era AW139 SAR pilots worked with P1AR crews to establish interoperability among marine and aviation assets during recovery at the rescue scene.
The award will be presented at the annual Salute to Excellence Awards dinner during HAI HELI-EXPO 2017. HAI HELI-EXPO®, the world’s largest helicopter trade show and exhibition, will be held at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, March 6–9, with the exhibit hall open March 7–9. For more information on HAI HELI-EXPO 2017, visit heliexpo.rotor.org.
HAI is the professional trade association for the civil helicopter industry. HAI’s 1,500+ organizational members and 1,800 individual members safely operate more than 4,500 helicopters approximately 2.3 million hours each year in more than 73 nations. HAI is dedicated to the promotion of the helicopter as a safe, effective method of commerce and to the advancement of the international helicopter community.
