The Life Flight program at Umass began on September 15th 1982 as the 42nd hospital based helicopter in the country. The LF crew consists of a pilot, a critical care flight nurse and an emergency medicine physician. Our original aircraft was a Bell Long Ranger which was upgraded to a BO 105 in the summer of 1984, upgraded in 1986 to a Eurocopter BK 117, and in 2006 the program upgraded to the latest in air medical transportation technology, the Eurocopter EC145 owned and operated by Air Methods Corporation of Colorado.

In the summer of 1994, UMass Memorial Life Flight began operation of a second aircraft which operates 12 hours per day, from 9a-9p. This aircraft was satellite based in the Western part of Massachusetts to better serve the citizens of the Commonwealth to Worcester Massachusetts. The second aircraft program was discontinued on October 28th 2000.