Airborne emergency medical services (EMS) or helicopter air ambulance flights accidents have unfortunately occured more often over the past decade. While there have been a decrease in the number of fatalities in U.S. commercial passenger flights, the opposite appears to be occuring with air ambulance services.
According to the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), the number of helicopter or air EMS accidents nearly doubled between the mid-1990s and the helicopter emergency medical services industry’s rapid growth period from 2000 to 2004. From January 2002 to January 2005, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recorded 55 EMS accidents including 41 helicopter and 14 airplane crashes which resulted in 54 fatalities and 19 serious injuries.
The recent tragedy which claimed the lives of the six-member University of Michigan organ transplant team and their cargo of donor organs on June 5, 2007 over Lake Michigan, is a reminder of the continuing need for better regulation and increased safety measures for emergency medical flight services.
National Transportation Safety Board and Air Ambulance Accidents
FAA Advisories for Helicopter Emergency Medical Services
In response to the increasing accidents the Federal Aviation Administration formed a task force on “Helicopter Air Ambulance Accidents” and issued official guidance beginning in 2005. Their official advisories included notices encouraging coordination between the air EMS industry and the FAA Certificate Holding District Offices to determine the geographic locations of flight operators. They also included “voluntary initiatives” which:
Encourage risk management training for flight crews to make more analytical decisions about whether to launch a mission despite external pressures.
Better training for night operations and responding to inadvertent flight into deteriorating weather conditions.
Promote technology such as night vision goggles, terrain awareness and warning systems and radar altimeters as most fatal accidents occur at night.
Provide airline-type FAA oversight for operators. Identify regional FAA helicopeter EMS operations and maintenance inspectors to help certificate new operators and review the operations of existing companies.
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