During a ceremony at Heli-Expo today AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, recognized REACH Air Medical Services for passing the 10,000 flight hour milestone with one of its Agusta A109A helicopters. The 10,000 flight hour milestone was recently passed by aircraft N21RX during a flight training mission with pilots Tim Karwal, Jason Dykstra and Director of Operations Vicky Spediacci onboard.

Vicky Spediacci, who has flown over 3500 hours on the A109A said on behalf of the REACH Air team “REACH has been flying this particular machine for 25 years.  In that time, AgustaWestland has provided exceptional support.”

Giovanni Cecchelli, VP Customer Support & Training, AgustaWestland Philadelphia, said “Congratulations to the Reach Team on achieving this major milestone. We are delighted that this helicopter continues to perform life saving missions day after day for REACH Air who have a long and proud tradition of delivering emergency medical transport to the communities they serve.”

REACH Air Medical Services, headquartered in Santa Rosa, California, provides helicopter and airplane patient transportation for critically ill or injured patients. In April 1987, REACH 1 began providing helicopter air ambulance services to Northern California using the twin-engine, instrument-flight-capable Agusta A109A aircraft.

They now have bases in Concord, Imperial, Lakeport, Marysville, Redding, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Stockton, Thermal, and Upland, California, as well as Corvallis, Oregon and San Antonio and Houston, Texas. 2012 marked the 25^th anniversary for REACH Air Medical Services which was founded in 1987 by Dr. John McDonald who wanted to better serve his community. Since its inception REACH has safely transported more than 55,000 patients.