Ontario's air ambulance service, called Ornge, is
purchasing six bigger and faster planes to service northern regions.
The new planes, which cost about $35 million in total, will start
flying in 2009 and 2010 out of Sioux Lookout, Timmins and Thunder
Bay.
Ornge president and CEO, Dr. Chris Mazza, says the Swiss-made
Pilatus PC-12 planes will fly father and faster than existing
planes.
He says they have enlarged cabins and doors and are needed
because most of the current fleet is, on average, more than 20 years
old.
Ornge handles about 18,000 calls a year from accidents and
on-scene trauma calls to hospital-to-hospital patient transfers.
Ornge operates 76 fixed-wing aircraft at 22 bases, and in August,
it bought 10 new helicopters to transfer patients in southern
Ontario.
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