Air ambulance accident investigation reveals weaknesses in industry
12:32 p.m. Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The two air ambulance choppers collided as they were each rushing a patient to a Flagstaff, Ariz. hospital.
One helicopter was apparently approaching from the north, the other from the south when they hit.
It was daylight, clear weather.
"It's a terrible scene to encounter," National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said.
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Experienced pilots were at the controls of both helicopters that collided near an Arizona hospital, leaving six people dead.
The chief executive for Air Methods says his company's chopper was being flown by a veteran pilot. An official with Classic Helicopters says his pilot had more than 10,000 hours of flight time.
Officials have been unable to provide an account of what preceded the deadly crash June 29.
Flagstaff Medical Center doesn't have flight controllers. It's up to the pilots to watch each other as they approach.
Both helicopters were ferrying patients, one with a medical emergency from the Grand Canyon.
An explosion on one of the aircraft after the crash injured two emergency workers who arrived with a ground ambulance company.
Source: The Associated Press
This accident is one in a string of air ambulance crashes in just the past few months, raising safety concerns about flights that are so critical to saving lives.
There's little doubt these are risky operations often occurring at night and in bad weather.
Flight nurse Jonathan Godfrey knows that first hand. He was the sole survivor of a EMS chopper crash into Washington DC's Potomac River in 2005.
"Making sure that we have our head in the game every time that the rotors start to spin, is the number one most important thing," Godfey said.
Godfrey now flies for an operation that uses safety improvements the NTSB would like all companies use: night vision goggles, systems to warn if the chopper is too close the ground and dispatch operations that double check weather.
The industry insists they're working with the government to improve safety.
(sot) Dawn Mancuso/Association of Air Medical Services: "We're looking at ways to constantly enhance our safety and still serve the patients we need to serve," Association of Air Medical Services Executive Director Dawn Mancuso said.
It's a heroic job. The number of air ambulances has doubled in the past decade and, as this weekend's tragedy shows, safety has not kept pace.
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