Hunter Schultz: LifeFlight Wasn’t Safe

Schultz, formerly of infamous LifeFlight Panama, starts new air ambulance scheme in Panama but without helicopters, the “main reason being safety”. Oh, really?

By Okke Ornstein

Okke Ornstein is from the Netherlands where he worked for about 15 years in the wonderful world of television and radio before accidentally moving to Panama. Since then, he has been chased by gangsters and many unsuccessful attempts have been made to shut him up, have him thrown out of the country, or in jail for crimes against the honor. He published The Noriegaville News and Bananama Republic for some years (an award winning combination of investigative journalism, satire, analysis and opinion) until threats were getting out of hand and he closed it down - if the sites weren't hacked already. His written work in English can be found in publications ranging from The Narco News Bulletin to NewsMax - for the latter he dodged sniper fire and car bombs in Kabul, among other things. None of this has stopped him from briefly becoming a consultant for the election campaign of Miguel Antonio Bernal, a well known human rights activist who runs for mayor of Panama City. Ornstein continues to work as a journalist for publications in and outside of Panama, is writing a book, works as a consultant on media, real estate and sustainable development and runs a new publication called The Isthmian.

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lifeflightpanama

Remember LifeFlight Panama? Yes, that was that helicopter ambulance service that never was, never got it’s license to operate and oozed amateurism from day one, when they were promising service without even having a helicopter.

Then finally they brought a Bell 206 Long Ranger III, a single-engined bumblebee that is not really a great choice for an air ambulance in Panama, to put it mildly. Experts in the field confirmed this. The range under full load is not sufficient to provide the services they were promising for example (LifeFlight quickly skipped Bocas service from the menu once yours truly had pointed that one out). More serious operations, like LifeFlight New Zealand, fly with the twin-engined BK117 or even bigger and heavier choppers.

Anyway, I predicted from the onset that this LifeFlight scheme would never go anywhere and I was right. It never went anywhere. The promoters then started endless whining of course, blaming Panamanian bureaucracy and shadowy conspiracies by competing heli venturers and of course attacking the messenger but never addressing any of the facts. Truth is: the scheme just sucked.

And now it seems that Hunter Schultz, who worked for LifeFlight Panama and vehemently defended it, agrees with me!

Today, Mr Schultz posted a message on the “Expat Health Care” Yahoo board promoting yet another air ambulance scheme, Evac Americas.

Writes Hunter Schultz (emphasis added by me):

The aircraft used are twin engine airplanes. No helicopters for a variety of reasons, with the main one being safety.

Oh really? So the LifeFlight chopper scheme wasn’t really safe after all?

You know, dear reader, I really have no idea if this new air ambulance service is any good or not. But the simple fact that this Hunter Schultz is the founder should make anyone more than just a little suspicious – the man wouldn’t even be able to run a Celimo scooter dealership.

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Contact

Okke Ornstein can be reached by email at okke@ornstein.org

Phone Panama: +507 6563 7475

Phone the Netherlands: +31 30 8903456

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