ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The desire to recover and rebuild the Metro Air Support Unit carried multiple agencies through almost two years of reconstruction. They revisited policies after the 2022 crash that killed four members of the unit.

Now, those agencies are focusing on training just in time for spring.

“We have to spend quite a bit of time training for it. And then when the real thing happens, we’re ready for it,” said Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Charles Lill. 

Lill has been in and out of the air support unit since 2016. 

“After the crash, I had a real desire to come back and help rebuild the unit,” said Lill. 

That was the crash that killed four members of the unit in 2022 – a Bernalillo County undersheriff, lieutenant, deputy, and rescue specialist. 

“We’re slowly getting back to where we were before the crash. And then hope to continue growing past that,” Lill said. 

Lill says they have better policies and procedures in place. For example, one helicopter equipped for patrol and rescue missions, and another helicopter for rescues only on the way. 

“Focus has always been to do patrol, but secondary is that rescue portion of it. Obviously, that picks up a lot in the spring in summer. So we are trying to get geared up for that,” said Lill. 

The team includes members from Bernalillo County Fire Rescue, and UNM’s International Mountain Medicine Center.

“I like to think of it as a three-legged stool. If any one of us goes away, it’s really hard for the stool to stand up right,” said Dr. Drew Harrell, a UNMH Emergency Medicine Physician. 

Harrell works at UNMH most days, until his team gets the call to help. He says the medicine is the same on the side of the Sandias, but accomplishing the task is different.

“It changes dramatically when we’re in a cold winter environment or a hot summer environment, and the only available resources we have are what we’ve been able to bring with us,” said Harrell. 

“There’s still people that go in the mountains and find themselves in a position where they’re calling us for help, and we want to answer that call. We want to be able to serve Bernalillo County the best we can,” said Mark McConnell, BCFR deputy chief of operations. 

The team is practicing hoist and rope exercises at least once a week, on top of a recent week-long training.

“We’re doing 150-foot hoists off the side of a mountain where the blades are literally, you know, a couple feet, maybe from the side of the mountain, so there’s not a lot of room for error,” said Lill. 

It’s a challenge the entire team is ready to accept.