The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office can now charge insurance companies for its helicopter services after the Federal Aviation Administration granted the Sheriff’s Office a Part 135 Commercial Air Carrier Certificate on Jan. 10.

The license comes four months after the Onondaga County Legislature and County Executive Joanie Mahoney cut the Sheriff’s Office’s budget and did not allocate any tax dollars to the helicopter, called Air-1.

‘The intent was that they would ground the helicopter,’ said John Dougherty, a member of the Onondaga County Legislature. ‘I think they thought that the helicopter was just unnecessary.’

The budget, which Dougherty voted against, leaves the Sheriff’s Office with the responsibility of raising enough money to keep the helicopter in flight.

After the 2012 budget was passed, the Sheriff’s Office had to raise $200,000 to put toward Air-1’s $600,000 operation cost, said Warren Darby, Onondaga County undersheriff and Syracuse University alumnus. He said it was a task people did not believe was going to be possible.

The Sheriff’s Office created a two-part plan to bring in money that was not from taxpayers. The first part was to raise money for the helicopter by starting the Air-1 Foundation Inc., a nonprofit organization. Darby said creating the foundation was crucial because police departments are not supposed to be out fundraising.

‘This would allow us to go out to the public, not as a police department, but rather as a foundation,’ he said.

The second part was to get the certification from the FAA to charge insurance companies for its various services. Darby said the Sheriff’s Office was not allowed to charge before because Air-1 is considered a ‘public ship,’ and federal laws state that you can only charge insurance companies for flights if you have a commercial ship.

Darby said the Sheriff’s Office began fundraising immediately by talking to various people and businesses throughout the community. So far, he said, the foundation has raised about $25,000.

Although Air-1 is Onondaga County’s only helicopter, it also responds to calls in other counties, which they do not charge for, Darby said. Oswego and Cayuga counties both recently agreed to help fund some of the helicopter costs when it responds to calls in those areas. Darby said the Sheriff’s Office has been asking other counties, like Cortland and Madison, to consider doing the same.

One of the biggest issues in deciding whether to cut the helicopter budget was its perceived competition with Mercy Flight Central, a nonprofit organization based in Canandaigua that sends commercial helicopters to respond to medical calls, said Dougherty, member of the Onondaga County Legislature.

‘People think it’s redundant to have two helicopters, but that’s just not true,’ Darby said.

Air-1 and Mercy Flight are very different in terms of what they are capable of doing, Dougherty said. Mercy Flight goes on medical calls and primarily transports patients to hospitals. Air-1, however, has the ability to respond to calls that Mercy Flight simply cannot.

Dougherty said one distinct difference between the two helicopters is that Mercy Flight needs to land to take a passenger on board. Air-1 doesn’t, which makes rescuing people from places like Onondaga Lake much easier. Dougherty said every year people fall through the ice on the lake, and Air-1 is able to rescue them.

‘Without Air-1, those people would die,’ he said.

When people think of Air-1, they oftentimes associate it with EMS calls, but these calls make up only about 4 percent of the 1,000 calls the helicopter goes on each year, Darby said.

Air-1’s primary responsibility is to go on police calls, which include rescuing people from accidents in local lakes or rivers, going on high-speed car chases and finding people who are lost in the woods or who are running from the police.

Air-1 also responds to fire calls. It is able to pick up hundreds of gallons of water and dump it on a blazing fire. This past year, Darby said, the helicopter responded to about a dozen fire calls.

Now that the Sheriff’s Office will be able to charge insurance companies for Air-1’s services, Darby said it is hoping this will help bring in enough money to keep the helicopter in the air.

Said Darby: ‘If we have the resources to go out and help somebody, we will do that.’

snbouvia@syr.edu

Published on January 17, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephanie: snbouvia@syr.edu | @snbouvia