OGDEN, Utah — A hospital in Weber County can brag about something few other medical facilities can - an all-female air medical flight crew.
Jennifer Prince is the lead pilot of the Air Life One crew. She said there's still a bit of surprise sometimes when her team lands at a critical incident.
"It's always kind of fun showing up on a scene and taking your helmets off and it's just three little girls that pop out of the helicopter, some of us are a little shorter than others," she said.
Erica Rau is the team's flight paramedic.
"Paramedics, as a field tend to be, it's a more male-dominated field," Rau explained. "So to get the off chance that the pilot, also a rare female, and the medic are female, plus the nurse, I think it's really cool that it all happened at once."
Jennie McEnany rounds out the women-led team as the flight nurse.
"Erica and I opened the base and then Jen was our first female pilot to come on and so that was really fun for us, the first time you know, we had the all-female crew," she reflected. "It's kind of rare."
The three women started working in Ogden nearly three years ago after gaining valuable experience in other areas of the country.
"I love being able to go land on interstates and roads and peoples fields, I've landed in people's front yards, small clearings in the forest, the ski slopes up here," Prince said.
They say the skill that helps them most in their job when just minutes could mean the difference between life and death is communication.
"You know, almost nonverbal communication a lot of times," McEnany explained. "I already know what Erica is doing next and we know what Jen's doing next, so we almost don't need to relay it as often as you might if you're with a crew you're not as symbiotic with."
Their priority is to help their patients in critical situations and they say it's a job they take seriously.
"We're here to get a job done," McEnany said. "Even though we may be unassuming and short, and however you want to view us on a scene, we're here to get the job done and we're just as capable as anybody else."
