With a bright spotlight illuminating the barren Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative baseball field, the helicopter of the UMass Memorial Life Flight circles the field, flying lower on each pass, as it comes in for a landing.

This landing isn’t for an emergency — it’s been well prepared for, and members of the Wilton Ambulance and Wilton and Lyndeborough Fire Departments are standing by, ready to undergo a safety drill on landing procedures, when a Life Flight is called in for a serious crash.

One like the call that goes over the radio, barely minutes after the helicopter alights on the field — a call for a motorcycle crash with an unresponsive driver, in Lyndeborough. This time, it’s not a drill.

With that, the Lyndeborough crew’s training time is over, as a portion of them leave the scene to attend to the crash. And the crew of the Life Flight is called into service for real, leaving the high school preemptively to take off for a landing site in Francestown, ready to transport a patient.

“It was very timely for that patient,” said Wilton Fire Chief Don Nourse. “The helicopter did land as part of the exercise — and subsequently that helicopter that was in our training session was requested to respond to that crash. And it was probably only a minute or two from the landing zone in Francestown.”

Nourse said in cases where a patient is seriously injured enough to necessitate a Life Flight, those minutes can matter deeply.

He said that’s why the Life Flight training the crews were participating in on Wednesday are so important. The helicopter and crew they were training with is an new resource, Air Methods, the leading air medical service provider in the country. The service announced a new location based in the Fitchburg Airport, added in April.

Life Flight response has always been pretty speedy to the Wilton area, Nourse said, typically around 15 minutes or a bit more, depending on where they are dispatched from. But the Fitchburg Airport location is physically closer than any other dispatch, cutting that time about in half.

“Which is a lot when a patient is in critical condition. Those minutes are extremely critical,” Nourse said. “It’s important when a patient is seriously injured to get them to the next level of care as quick as we possibly can. It translates to a better outcome for the patient.”

“We value the partnership we’ve established with Air Methods,” said Fitchburg Mayor Stephen DiNatale. “We know in emergent situations Air Methods’ local air medical program is ready to answer the call and provide the highest level of critical care to our residents and visitors.”

The teams can respond to emergency medical and trauma events, including crashes, burns, heart attacks, strokes, and pediatric emergencies, and can provide transportation between facilities when a patient requires specialized care, such as the case with the motorcycle crash in Lyndeborough on Wednesday, where the rider was flown to UMass Worcester.

The helicopter itself is equipped, with crews able to administer blood, provide airway intervention, cardiac and blood flow monitoring, ventilator management, administer medication and surgical procedures while in mid-flight.

Wednesday was the third time the helicopter had responded from the Fitchburg Airport since the new location was added, Nourse said. Wednesday was meant to be a refresher training for landing zone requirements and procedures, giving crews a chance to practice securing the landing zone, and learning what abilities medically the helicopter can provide. Nourse said medical flights have been a tool the department has had access to for years, and has done similar trainings in the past, but with the new, faster response times, he said it’s good to know the capabilities of the responding helicopter.

“I think it’s a great resource added to the region, and good news for any patients that require that type of care. We’re excited about the addition,” Nourse said.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.