Eagle Air Med began in 1976 in response to a drastic need for quicker medical transportation in the four corner states, specifically the Navajo Nation. The original owner, Jon Hunt, responded to a call from a local doctor to provide air medical transportation for a young man who was involved in a motorcycle accident. Jon, the physician, and the patient, boarded the company’s Cessna 172 and headed for Salt Lake City. Jon was part owner of Blanding Flying Service and used the 172 and a Cessna 206 for scenic flights as well as a number of other revenue ventures. That first medical flight opened a new business opportunity and soon the company was working with Indian Health Service and local clinics to provide non-emergent transports in the Four Corners Area.
The company soon moved into providing emergent transports a few years later. A couple of seats were taken out of a Piper Seneca to make room for a stretcher and a system suitable for transporting patients was developed. The company, known then as Blanding Air Ambulance, started promoting its services, hired full-time dispatchers, began using the 800-742-8787 number, started purchasing more Seneca’s, hiring local nurses and pilots to be “on-call” and transporting patients from around the area. Growth in the 90’s allowed the company to upgrade the fleet to Cessna 421’s. In 2000, the corporation began to fully transition the fleet to King Air aircraft.
TIMELINE
Please click on the photos below to learn what happened in the corresponding years: