The local Care Flight helicopter — a Eurocopter AS350 B3 — hovers recently over Lake Tahoe. It is specially built to handle well at high altitudes and in windy conditions. It can land on a small footprint, such as a mountain top or high meadow.

Emergency crews responded to a flight that landed Friday evening at Nashville International Airport.

Competition among medical helicopter companies continues to sharpen across the Inland Northwest as Life Flight Network opens its second northern Idaho base in two years – a region that for two decades has been served by Spokane-based Northwest MedStar. The expansion by Life Flight into Sandpoint is a multimillion-dollar venture for the Oregon air-ambulance service. It will station one helicopter ...