Mountain Area Medical Airlift Celebrates 40 Years, Surpassing over 31,000 Patients Served

This month, Mission Health’s Mountain Area Medical Airlift (MAMA) celebrated four decades of providing critical air medical care across Western North Carolina and surrounding areas. Since the program began in 1986, MAMA crews transported over 31,000 patients, bringing high-quality healthcare across the region.  

“I am incredibly proud of the generations of flight nurses, paramedics, pilots, mechanics and other team members who have built this program and continue that legacy today. MAMA represents the very best of Mission Health - extraordinary clinical expertise, an unwavering commitment to our patients and a willingness to go wherever we are needed to care for the people of this region,” said Greg Lowe, President of Mission Health. 

MAMA began with one helicopter, MAMA 1, based at Mission Hospital in Asheville. As the region’s needs grew, the program expanded in October 2004 with MAMA 2 stationed at Angel Medical Center in Franklin, bringing air medical resources closer to communities across far Western North Carolina. Recently, HCA Healthcare funded a new hanger for MAMA 2, allowing the helicopter to be brought inside during severe weather.  

Currently, MAMA is supported by 36 active medical crew members, including flight nurses and flight paramedics, along with 18 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit flight team members and respiratory therapists who provide specialized care for the region’s smallest and most vulnerable patients. Eight full-time pilots and five full-time helicopter mechanics help keep the program flying safely. 

The people behind MAMA are deeply connected to the communities they serve. Current crew members live throughout Buncombe, Madison, Yancey, Henderson, Transylvania, Haywood, Swain, Macon, Cherokee, McDowell, Watauga and Polk counties, as well as neighboring Tennessee and South Carolina. Some have spent much of their careers caring for patients in the air. John Sherman, RN, has been with MAMA for 37 years and said the impact of that work can sometimes become clear in unexpected places. 

“You don’t realize the impact that you have,” Sherman said. “I was running a race one day and a guy comes up to me and thanks me, telling me I flew his daughter last week. We are very lucky to do what we do.” 

Four decades after MAMA 1 first lifted off from Mission Hospital, the aircraft, technology and facilities have evolved and the program has grown far beyond where it began. What has remained constant is its mission: bringing advanced care to patients wherever they are and connecting communities across the mountains with the specialized care available throughout Mission Health. 

“For 40 years, people across this region have known that when they see MAMA in the sky, someone is getting the care they need,” Lowe said. “We are proud of that legacy, and through continued investment in this program, we are making sure MAMA is here and ready for the next patient, the next family and the next generation of Western North Carolinians.”