I believe its pretty common in some of those rural areas in Arkansas, hospitals are far and few in between, inlaws live in Mammoth Spring and always talking about "so n so" being life flighted..........I believe they may even have some sort of pre payment plan "insurance" for that possibility.
You are correct 65BCODA, I would think they was air lifted to Little Rock from where we was at, Air evac fly over my home all the time becouse we do have 2 big main Hospitals here with hello pads that stay busy.