The Rush of EMS Helicopter Accidents in the US – Causes and Prevention

Unexpected catastrophe is happening on the way from the horrific US accident scenes on the way to hospitals in EMS helicopters. The helicopters crash killing many of the occupants at an unacceptable rate. If you were injured in Southern California, whether in Long Beach, Big Bear, Laguna Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Orange or Yorba Linda, in Orange County or Carlsbad, Oceanside, La Jolla, Del Mar, San Marcos, Vista and Escondido in San Diego, CA or in Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indio, Coachella, Yucca Valley or some remote or mountainous area and it is dark or bad weather, your chances of surviving the trip to the hospital it may be better in an ambulance.

Deaths as a result of helicopter crashes in the US have skyrocketed to record levels and the National Transportation Safety Board has been investigating what is behind this wave of Police and Emergency Medical Service helicopter crashes .

In the last 12 months, 31 people died in eight accidents. EMS helicopter accidents in the US have become one of the most dangerous areas in aviation and one of the highest aviation accident rates. This year alone, 24 people have died in medical airlifts.

An NTSB study of EMS helicopter accidents between 1983 and 2005 found that most accidents (77 percent vs. 31 percent) occurred when weather conditions forced pilots to fly using their instruments instead of Look for visual cues outside. In the dark, 56 percent of the crashes were fatal compared to 24 percent when the flight was not in the dark.

That study determined that 29 of those 55 crashes could have been prevented. Several security issues were identified. Consequently, in 2006, the NTSB issued a special report to address the safety concerns of these flights to accident scenes and sought computerized safety equipment, terrain awareness and warning systems (TAWS) (also known as technology to avoid terrain) to warn pilots when they were flying too close to the ground.

It has been reported that while some progress has been made, none of the NTSB’s recommendations in that report have been fully implemented.

All but two of the last eight fatal EMS accidents have been at night or in bad weather.
By comparison, the fatality rate for ambulances is nothing like that for helicopters.

Now the US House of Representatives and Senate are considering legislation to address these security issues and set higher industry standards.

Until this situation improves, EMS helicopter pilots, as well as police and medical personnel on the ground, must take into account the condition of the injured people at the scene of the accident, the dangerousness of the place, as well as the weather conditions. and the darkness. to determine if the accident victims can be transported to a hospital by ambulance or if the risks warrant the use of an EMS helicopter, both for the safety of the injured victims and for the safety of the pilots, flight nurses and EMS paramedics.

Veteran EMS pilots say wearing night vision goggles could improve their safety. But due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is apparently a shortage of these glasses. Less than a third of the 800 EMS helicopters in the US have night vision technology. The lead time for civilian use of the glasses at the largest US manufacturer is six to eight months.

News Note: On October 16, 2008, an intensive care helicopter crashed in Aurora, Illinois, killing two crew members, a nurse, and a 1-year-old patient while airborne on their way to a hospital. from Chicago. The helicopter reportedly severed a guy wire from a radio station tower and crashed.

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