Stiftelsen Norsk Luftambulanse ("Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation", NLA) is a Norwegian humanitarian organisation, organised as a non-profit foundation. It primarily promotes and operates helicopter air ambulance services. , they operate seven Eurocopter EC135 and one EC145 helicopters out of seven bases in Norway, based on contracts with the state through the Norwegian Air Ambulance. In Denmark, they operate three EC135 out of three bases. The foundation carries out charitable work, including providing additional funding for all helicopter ambulances in Norway to increase their medical equipment. It also funds research within critical emergency medicine and operates a service to fly its members home in case of illness. With 706,000, it is the organization in Norway with the most members. Operations are carried out through the subsidiary Norsk Luftambulanse AS. Established in 1977 by Jens Moe, operations out of Lørenskog Heliport, Central Hospital started the following year. The services out of Stavanger commenced in 1981. The state funding started in 1988, after which NLA established the bases at Bergen and Trondheim. NLS later won contracts to operate out of Arendal, Ål, Dombås, and Førde. History Establishment A government commission which published its results in 1977 considered the possibility for a helicopter-based air ambulance service. They concluded that although there could be benefits with a service, the cost would have to weighed up with other health activities. The commission also commented on that the helicopters would lay hold on a large number of physicians. Parallel with this work the Drøbak-based Jens Moe started working with plans to establish a helicopter ambulance service. He was inspired by the systems applied in West Germany and Switzerland, run by ADAC and Rega. This model involved manning the helicopter with an anesthesiologist, a rescue swimmer and a pilot. Since the late 1960s he had been working for an improved ambulance service, which he wanted manned with anesthesiologists or anesthesia nurses. Norsk Luftambulanse AS was incorporated on 6 November 1977, originally with Moe, Fred Øistein Andersen and Ingvar Vilfladt as shareholders. However, they were in need of funding and decided to establish a foundation which would own the operating company and fund it through charitable donations. They decided to follow the example of the German Björn-Steiger-Stiftung and name the foundation after a patient who probably would have lived with quicker response times. They identified the nine-year-old Bård Østgaard who drowned in Groruddammen in Oslo in August 1975. The