Sisters Heliport at Maine Medical Center Closed for Equipment Upgrades and Maintenance
Why It MattersThe closure highlights how critical-care air medical operators depend on backup landing infrastructure and ground transport coordination to maintain uninterrupted patient transport service.
MaineHealth has temporarily closed the Sisters Heliport at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, for equipment upgrades, maintenance, and testing. The heliport, on the roof of the hospital, has two landing pads and is used mainly by LifeFlight of Maine, with occasional use by Boston MedFlight and Dartmouth Hitchcock DHART, among other services.
During the closure, medical helicopters will divert to Portland International Jetport, with patients then transported to Maine Medical Center by waiting ambulance. MaineHealth said it coordinated with internal and external partners for several months on the project.
MaineHealth described the medical helicopter as essentially a flying intensive care unit, serving critically ill or injured patients from hospitals and communities across Maine and frequently New Hampshire, with each aircraft typically carrying a pilot and two to three specialized medical crew members. Nearly all flights are patient transport missions, though a small number involve training or, rarely, transporting a specialist physician to a distant hospital for a complex patient who cannot be moved. Approximately a dozen patients per year are flown by helicopter from Maine Medical Center to specialty centers in Boston, while patients requiring transport beyond Boston are handled by LifeFlight fixed-wing aircraft.
