In The News

Press Release, for immediate release.
For more information contact:
Dr. Wayne Wheeler
Mike Pistole
740-354-6169

Life Air Chillicothe Grand Opening

Life Air announced today its plans for the grand opening of its newest base in Chillicothe, Ohio.  Life Air is the sister company of the successful Life Ambulance Company, which has been providing service for nearly 25 years.  Life Air is the only Ohio owned private, FAA part 135 certificated air medical transport service in the state of Ohio. 

Life Air has not only brought a medical transport helicopter to the Chillicothe area but they have built their own helicopter base.  The base will be manned and on call 24/7 by a team of Nurses, Paramedics, Pilots and Certified Aircraft Mechanics.  The base contains office space for operations, living and sleeping quarters for the crews, and a new FAA approved helipad complete with lights for night time operations.

Chillicothe represents Life Air’s second of many planned bases. “I am very proud to open Life Air’s first Ohio station in Southern Ohio. This opening represents the next logical step in our goal of putting together a patient-centered, vertically integrated transportation system for the movement of patients throughout the Ohio and the Mid-west.  We look forward to serving the patients in Ross and surrounding counties in the same high quality fashion they have come to expect from life ambulance and  the Life Air Mobil Intensive Care Units.” Said Mike Pistole owner and CEO.  Life Air Chillicothe will serve a 70 mile radius from Chillicothe Ohio which will include the Ohio counties of: Ross, Vinton, Scioto Jackson, Adams, Highland, Brown, Lawrence, Clinton, Athens, Perry, Hocking, Madison, Fayette, Greene, Clark, Licking, Gallia, and Meigs.

* The first base for Life Air is already operating in Muncie Indiana. Their current fleet of helicopters includes two Eurocopter Twinstars and a larger Eurocopter BK 117.

A key component of Life Air is there state of the art communication and dispatch center located in Portsmouth Oh.  Capable of watching the aircraft 24/7 while keeping an eye on, and coordinating things like weather, winds and ground transportation, the dispatch center is truly a remarkable site to see.  When visitors tour the dispatch center the most common comment is “you don’t expect to see anything like this in Portsmouth Oh.”  Modern Voice over IP technology (taking traditional 2- way radio transmission and letting it travel securely across the internet) makes communication effective over long distances. 

Life Air credits its current and future success to its highly experienced team of pilots, paramedics and nurses. Director of Operations / Chief Pilot Dale Mueller has 41 years of military and civilian aviation experience (26 years as a helicopter pilot) and over 9000 hours of pilot time.   The director of maintenance, Bill Hatten, has over 30 years experience maintaining helicopters for both military and commercial aviation.  The medical crews directed by Dr. Wayne Wheeler, MD, Medical Director, represents decades of knowledge and training in pre-hospital emergency care.  “It has been a point of pride for me to have had the opportunity over the last 10 years to participate in the development of Life Ambulance and Life Air.  We now serve patients in four states with over 20 stations.  With this, the opening of our second Life Air Helicopter Base, we can extend our services to those sickest and most injured patients in need of rapid medical transport to an appropriate medical facility.” –Dr Wayne Wheeler, MD

“Thanks to the dedication of my employees, my dream of providing an air medical service is becoming a reality.” -Mike Pistole, Owner and CEO

*Update: Life Air - Muncie has been relocated to West Union, OH. This move became necessary when the primary hospital in the Muncie area unexpectedly sold to a large health conglomerate. The new owners maintain a large fleet of their own aircraft. Although our flight services were no longer required in that area, the resultant move comes as good news for West Union. They were able to have their Life Air Base much sooner than expected. We look forward to serving those communities with life saving air transport services.