One Of The Issues Identified On The Board's 'Most Wanted' List

The NTSB has announced that safety recommendation A-07-112 has been implemented by the FAA.

The recommendation, on on the board's 10 'Most Wanted' list, was issued following the NTSB’s investigation of two helicopter emergency medical services flight crashes that involved low-altitude flight during night visual meteorological conditions. The investigations revealed safety issues related to the operability and use of radar altimeters.

The safety recommendation called for the FAA to ensure the minimum equipment lists for emergency medical services operations helicopters require radar altimeters be operable during flights conducted at night.

A rulemaking by the FAA now requires all helicopters in air ambulance operations be equipped with an operable FAA-approved radio altimeter and a helicopter terrain awareness and warning system. While the rule did not address minimum equipment lists, the NTSB determined the FAA’s measures that created redundancy for terrain avoidance in the event of a failure of a radio altimeter or helicopter terrain awareness and warning system, fully addressed the safety problem in an alternate way.

(Source: NTSB)

FMI: ntsb.gov/safety/safety-recs/_layouts/ntsb.recsearch/Recommendation.aspx?Rec=A-07-112