CHAMPIONS IN SAFETY. CHAMPIONS IN CARE.
Recognize Risk. Accept Responsibility. Align Safety Interests.
It’s time for a change. It’s time to take the lead on our own safety.
Historically, regulatory attention in HEMS has been distracted toward equipment issues, such as NVG, IMC equipment, TAWS, and AP. Yet equipment deficiencies are rarely to blame for HEMS accidents. So why throw equipment at the problem of HEMS safety? Because expensive as it may be, equipment costs less than effective safety training and policies. In fact, some of our equipment, by providing an illusion of increased ability to persist in marginal conditions, may makes us LESS safe.
Real culprits in HEMS include operational training, policy, and decision support cultures that prioritize issues other than safety, and operating policies and practices that perpetuate misalignment of interest inside and outside the helicopter.
But most of the problem starts inside the aircraft – failure of the HEMS crew to fully exercise responsibility for their own safety. It’s time to quit blaming anyone else.
We decide when we’re trained and ready. We decide who to work for, who we’ll work with, under which circumstances, and what operational policies we’ll follow. We decide to strap in, launch, continue, and with our pilot partners, when and where to land. No one forces us to fly. No one exposes us to anticipated and controllable risk until we allow it.
CHAMP’s approach: Recognize Risk. Accept Responsibility. Align Safety Interests.
CHAMP 