Learn Risks

CHAMPIONS IN SAFETY. CHAMPIONS IN CARE.

“a helicopter EMS pilot or crewmember
flying 20 hours per week during a 20-year career would have a
37% chance of being in a fatal crash”

EMS Helicopter Crashes: What Influences Fatal Outcome?
Annals of Emergency Medicine, 3/06, Baker, S. et al

HEMS safety is abysmal and getting worse. CAMTS and the FAA, NTSB, OSHA, NLRB, CMS, insurers, ACEP, AMA, and a myriad of other stakeholders have proven ineffective at improving HEMS safety . Change will not come from anyone but ourselves.

HEMS has always been dangerous:

Click to access 2006_EMS_Accident_Study.pdf

http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2006/baker-ems-fatal-crashes.html

Click to access 20041026.pdf

This didn’t help. It’s the FAA HEMS Risk Management Guide of 1989 and it heralded the most lethal decades in HEMS. Note the cursory treatment of air medical crew members on page 12.

Click to access Risk_Management_for_Air_Ambulance_Helicopter_Operators.pdf

Then we let it get worse.

The pilots knew:

http://www.maxtrescott.com/max_trescott_on_general_a/2009/08/medevac-helicoptershelping-people-but-killing-crews.html

The NTSB and FAA knew:

http://www.justicenewsflash.com/2008/10/01/faa-knows-high-ems-death-rate_20081001223.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=deadly-dangers-of-medical-helicopte-2009-08-21

2/4/09: The NTSB stirred

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-03-medchopper_N.htm

Click to access NTSB-2009-8a-Blumen-revised-final-version.pdf

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/NTSBExaminesHelicopterEMSSafety_199708-1.html

9/1/09: The NTSB went back to sleep