Many Lives Are Saved, But Risks Remain High; Government, Industry Stakeholders Work Together For Safety.

Medical Evacuation is a risky sub-set of general aviation, as too many accident reports, including two this past week, painfully and tragically remind us.

While one of those mishaps was a fixed-wing plane, the danger is especially acute for medical evacuation helicopter crews, who often land and take off from ill-prepared, uneven, obstructed remote locations, frequently at night and in the foulest weather, while under the psychological pressure that comes with knowing a human life is hanging in the balance. Many operators seem to have taken the 1800's Coast Guard catch phrase to heart: "You have to go out, no one said anything about coming back." The surprise may be not that so many such missions end in disaster, but that so many don't.

The industry has addressed this with numerous safety summits, newsletters, dissemination of "lessons learned," and recurrent training. The government's answer has been to pile on more regulations. Neither approach has been truly satisfactory, as the safety trend lines are still scarily negative. So industry and government are trying something new -- working together!

On Friday, January 14, government and industry players, including associations and actual operators, conducted an initial public meeting of a task force that aims to tackle the thorny problems of making an innately risky flying activity safer. Previous EMS Safety Summits have included pilots, operators and flight nurses. This one is important because it puts the people who are taking the risks and the key regulators face-to-face to work on safety, together.

"Today’s session was very productive," the Helicopter Association International (HAI) reported, promising more details soon -- and asking for further industry input, especially from the smaller operators. "Don’t make the big operators do all the heavy lifting; send us your ideas!" the association asked its members.

The industry was represented by HAI, the Association of Air Medical Service (AAMS), and the National EMS Pilots Association (NEMSPA), in addition to some of the largest EMS helicopter operators. Government agencies at the summit were the FAA, which hosted the meeting, and NTSB.

FMI: www.rotor.com, www.aams.org, www.nemspa.org