Drone814 partners: Johnstown test run 'just the beginning'

Yahoo

2 days ago

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Moments after John Eberhardt fell to the turf Friday at Trojan Stadium, a drone was hovering overhead to lower medical supplies.
It was just a drill. But Eberhardt, the managing director for ATA Aviation, and other partners in the Drone814 initiative hope the scenario will be saving lives statewide and creating jobs in the years ahead.
ATA Aviation, Aerium, and Virginia-based DroneUp deployed a trial run of their Drone814 concept at Greater Johnstown High School – in front of the school-aged audience they hope will be piloting and maintaining those drones one day soon.
The test run signals upcoming live trials this summer that will see remote medical drone operators work with 911 dispatchers to deliver Narcan, EpiPens and other supplies to real-life emergency scenes across Greater Johnstown.
"This first demonstration is just the beginning," Aerium Executive Director Glenn Ponas told a crowd of approximately 60 students, educators and emergency responders Friday.
"Not only can these drones save lives ... but drones can be a key part of any (career) field," he said. "It's going to allow people to make a living with drones, and we're going to do it right here in Johnstown."
Building a workforce
The Drone814 initiative has been underway for several years through a partnership between Aerium, the Cambria County Department of Emergency Services, the Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission, and companies in the drone industry.
The aim is to show that dispatching medical drones to certain emergency scenes can lead to faster treatment, quicker recovery times and lower medical costs while creating local jobs, project partners have said.
Greater Johnstown School District Superintendent Amy Arcurio announced Friday that Greater Johnstown students will be able to pursue that career path this fall – and obtain a drone operator's certificate by the conclusion of the 2025-26 school year.
Teens are already passionate about drone technology, and over just one school year, they'll be able to graduate with the training needed to find well-paying jobs that support Johnstown's burgeoning aviation industry, she said.
"The sky isn't just the limit – it's just the beginning," Arcurio said.
Ponas said Aerium's efforts with Greater Johnstown and other partners will enable that workforce to grow quickly and attract companies to Cambria County. Eberhardt can attest to that.
Demonstration, driving growth
Eberhardt is already moving his small Virginia business to a space inside Nulton Aviation Services in Richland Township.
As Drone814 and a regional operation network launches in Cambria and Somerset counties, it will create opportunities for more drone-related enterprises, he said.
They illustrated the concept on a small scale Friday, using a mock phone call to 911 to deploy a drone from Greater Johnstown's parking lot into an end zone on Trojan Stadium's football field.
How Drone814's medical deliveries would work
A medical supply delivery demonstration is conducted by Drone814 at Greater Johnstown High School.
A drone operator worked quietly from a truck nearby as the buzzing drone dropped off its package, which contained color-coded boxes of supplies for different emergencies. The kit – not much bigger than a lunchbox – was lowered onto the field with a cable.
Now, project partners have to show the world the method works from miles away.
Through a more than $1 million test phase and federal airspace approval, Ponas said, medical drone flights will make history next month when operators start testing them outside their line of sight.
Given the fact that every second counts, Drone814 wlll save lives, said state Rep. Frank Burns, D-East Taylor Township, noting that rural locations and rugged Cambria County terrain can often pose challenges for local ambulance responders.
Deliveries this summer won't just provide medical aid. Data reports from each flight will track response times and patient outcomes to enable Drone814 to make its case to the nation – and to Medicare – that the concept is a worthy one, project partners said.
Support for responders
Drone814 partners plan to work with the county and Conemaugh Health System to compile that data and see how the cost to provide care and recovery rates compare to traditional methods.
But during a question-and-answer session with the public Friday, Eberhart and Ponas stressed that the medical drone deployment won't take the place of ambulance dispatches. They'll only support them, Eberhart added.
When county 911 dispatchers take an emergency call, they will follow the same state-approved questioning scripts they already use to diagnose the nature of an emergency.
If the incident involves a possible overdose, cardiac event or traumatic bleed, for example, they'll continue to dispatch the nearest available ambulance while also contacting DroneUp pilots to deploy a drone, Eberhart said.
County dispatchers are already trained to walk callers through stressful emergency scenarios and to locate and use medical devices such as the opioid overdose-reversing medication Narcan, a tourniquet or a defibrillator, said Eberhardt.
The only difference is that it will be a drone lowering a package of supplies from the skies, he said.
Next steps, 'big deal'
Drone814 partners said they'll be spending the coming weeks preparing for their real-life trial runs.
County dispatchers will receive training in June, and Drone814 partners will gather feedback from them to help fine-tune the partnership before installing additional training, they said.
Sensors working in tandem with drone software will need to be installed across the city of Johnstown, Ferndale, East Conemaugh and the West Hills, ATA Aviation officials said.
If results from this summer's test phase support their efforts, a second, expanded phase in the region would follow in 2026, Eberhardt added.
"The plan is to listen to stakeholders" and learn from each step in the process, said DroneUp Vice President of Business Development Greg James. "We're going to improve as we go."
Burns and Cambria County Commissioner Thomas Chernisky praised the initiative and its sky-high potential for the region.
"This isn't some pie-in-the-sky idea," Burns said at the event. "This is going to be a big deal for (Greater Johnstown)."
"This project is about more than drones," Chernisky told The Tribune-Democrat following the demonstration. "It's about investing in our people, preparing for the future and showing what's possible when public safety, education and innovation come together."