After more than a decade, St. Mary's retires CareFlight plane

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO/KJCT) In 1978 the first GPS system went into use. It was also the same year St. Mary's CareFlight Two was built.

It's the plane they use to transport the toughest cases that even the skilled doctors and nurses at St. Mary's can't handle. Monday, that plane headed out on a new call.

Over 4,000 patients went through the doors of CareFlight Two since 2003 to get a higher level of care.

"This has been a great aircraft for us," Tom Feller, Flight Nurse, said. "It's made a difference; we've flown a lot of sick patients in this air craft."

Now the aircraft is retiring.

"You feel like you're really doing something that makes a difference," Bruce White, Lead Pilot, said.

"We've flown all over in this aircraft," Feller said.

The plane has gone to Chicago, Phoenix, Seattle and even Los Angeles. 2,000,000 miles and ten thousand hours have been spent saving lives in CareFlight Two.

"One of those steady aircraft that is really nice to fly," White said.

Faithfully flying patient's hours old, and some even older than the aircraft itself.

"It has satellite navigation now that didn't exist back then," White said.

At almost 40 years old, it's time for an upgrade.

"I've been flying this plane for the last 13 years, it seems like an old friend," White said.

An arch send off and into the sky CareFlight two went Monday, and onto it's longest journey to Virginia where it'll become a corporate plane. 

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