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Why Is Nation's Medevac Under Attack?
Some months ago, I blogged about the safety of the medevac industry. I wrote the blog shortly after we had a medevac helicopter go down here in Illinois, killing everyone aboard. Here is the blog: http://www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blogs/the-safety-of-air-a....
USA Today ran a story on Thursday, August 19, 2010 that we should take notice of: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-08-19-1Amedivac19_ST_N.htm.
The headline for the article written by Alan Levin “Medevac Industry Opposing Upgrades Wanted by NTSB” is an attention grabber, because you have to wonder upon reading it, why anyone would oppose more safety in an industry that has had a recent, poor safety record.
So as not to violate copyright laws, I will encourage to use the link and read the article.
Since year 2000 to year-to-date, there have been 122 fatalities attributed to air ambulance crashes.
I understand that, in the larger scheme, the fatalities are a small percentage when compared to the thousands of flights, but when you call your service a “life flight”, the last thing you assume is that you are going to die taking one.
Why do you think that, if the air ambulance industry is resisting safety changes, what are the reasons for it?
Are too many dying in air ambulance accidents in your mind?
If you don't think so, then is it journalism sensationalism?
TCSS.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by BillySFCVFD on
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Expenses vs profits could be the main reason. Hard to believe money is put ahead of human life. But if you are the decision maker and not the pilot; crew or patient your life is not in danger.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Ayotte on
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New England Life Flight had an incident in the 1990's when one of their helos crashed, killing the flight crew.
They changed their protocols so that they would only fly under visual flight rules. They haven't had an incident since.
If one were to look at medevac helo crash stats, one would find that most of the incidents occured during IFR (instrument flight rules) conditions.
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Gonzo:
About the same thing happened right after 2007/2008, when 35 died in air ambulance crashes.
Many voluntary changes were made and the industry went like a year without a fatality.
But, it seems like after the heat died down, accidents are up again.
Air ambulance crashes has such an emotional impact to all involved that I would think that whatever the cost, it would be passed to the consumer/patient anyway.
I would also think that the insurance companies would be pushing big time for more stringent safety guidelines. It will save them money.
IMHO.
TCSS.
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Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
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It's not really fair to only look at medivac fatalities and costs. You also need to look at the number and survival rates for their transports. This data is usually very difficult to tease out of the noise, but it can be done. Knowing these numbers would give a better picture of the risk/benefit and enable better decisions.
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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Maryland had a state police medevac go down in fog and kill the two man crew, a volunteer EMT and a patient. One patient survive. Now this happen just outside Washington DC. There were many errors involved in this incident from no updated weather report to a flight controler not knowing how to get the helicopter safety to back to its hanger so the patients could be unloaded to a ground unit for transport and then the crash site was not found for hours in a park not far from a fire station.
Now the federal government got involved because it was on their door step and wanted to see what they could do to control the problem.
Maryland changed the medevac call out procedures because the incident that caused all of this was considered a unnescessarily call out and the paients could have gone by ground ambulance.
The state is now looking at new helicopters to replace their fleet and they are not going to be cheap when it comes to what will be on them. Twin engines is one thing they have had for years after three crashes of single engine Bell Jet Rangers which killed six state troopers. Two of the crashes were weather related.
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