Originally Posted by
donkiely
Second, had it been more serious and we had to get the guy on the ground, where would we have gone? I'm guessing not back to Seattle, which by then was more than an hour behind us. Juneau? Another one of the small towns in Southeast? Just curious what the procedure would be. I assume we'd head to the nearest airport that would accommodate a jet, has medical care, and had decent landing conditions.
That would depend on how fast you had to get them on the ground, and the kind of ground care required.
If you really needed to get a person on the ground RIGHT NOW, and have a hospital fairly close the following runways with nearby medical facilities would work..
distance from Seattle;
<20 mins - go back to SEA, or BLI
<40 mins - YVR
<60 mins - YQQ (Comox BC)
<90 mins - SIT or KTN
<100 mins - JNU
>140 mins - ANC
Problem with some airports is they're a long way from a large hospital; YYJ is a good example. It's 15 miles from YYJ to Victoria General, so you'd actually be better off flying to YVR (Richmond general is very close), or YQQ (St Josephs)
The bottom line is where along the west coast can you land a 737 and there's a hospital (with good enough facilities) nearby. Obviously the diversion into Canada on a US domestic route opens up a whole can of paperwork, but it still could happen.