FAA under pressure to improve safety for EMS flights

Emergency medical services aircraft have been in nine fatal accidents in the last 12 months, killing 35 people -- the highest number of fatalities since such flights began in the 1970s.

The grim toll has prompted the National Transportation Safety Board -- which has been critical of EMS flight operations -- to step up pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration to adopt safety measures the board wanted two years ago.

"The NTSB is extremely concerned with the EMS helicopter record," said Robert Sumwalt, NTSB member. "We want the FAA to move forward with these recommendations. We've lost too many lives."

The NTSB plans a three-day public hearing in February on EMS helicopter safety. At its Oct. 28 meeting, the NTSB will consider adding its EMS recommendations to its "most wanted list" of safety improvements.

In a 2006 study of 55 EMS accidents between 2002 and 2005, the NTSB identified the following problems:

• Less stringent requirements for operations conducted without patients on board.

• Lack of flight risk evaluation programs.

• Lack of consistent, comprehensive dispatch procedures.

• No requirement to use certain safety technologies, such as those that can warn when an obstacle is approaching.

The FAA takes the NTSB proposals seriously and is focusing on ways for EMS operators to reduce risk, according to FAA spokesman Alison Duquette. But she noted that turning a recommendation into a regulation takes time.

It's difficult to say why there are so many EMS crashes. Sumwalt said the operating environment is "challenging" -- EMS pilots often go out at night and in bad weather. In some cases, they're picking someone up off the highway.

The National EMS Pilots Association advocates the use of night vision goggles, currently used on only 25 percent of EMS aircraft. A survey by the group in May found that 82 percent of pilots want them. One pilot said he felt "virtually blind" without them.

Pilot Del Waugh, who died in Wednesday's helicopter crash in Aurora, was not wearing the goggles. His company, Air Angels, has not purchased or trained in them, the FAA said.

The technology is expensive -- $118,000 for equipment and training. Goggle supplies are also limited because so many are being used by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Dawn Mancuso, executive director of the Association of Air Medical Services.

Some officials nationwide also have said perhaps all helicopters should have two engines and two pilots aboard.

Mike Dermont, director of business development for Air Angels, said the 1982 Bell 222 A helicopter that crashed Wednesday night was equipped with air avoidance equipment and was a dual-engine copter. Waugh was the only pilot.

Dermont said as a matter of course Air Angels takes distance and weather into account. If one crew member objects to flying in certain weather conditions, the crew will not make the flight.

"We do not put pressure on our crews to fly for anything other than emergency reasons," he said.

Beacon News staff writer Steve Lord contributed to this report.

• Photos: Kirstin laid to rest
• Photos: Workers fix radio tower
• Photos: Copter crash probe begins
• Photos: Family's mourning begins
• Photos: The victims
• Photos: Crash scene

• Twitter: Latest developments

• Map: Crash site

Tuesday stories

• Tears, rain fall as tiny crash victim buried 
• Flight nurse a hero: 'Gave his life for little baby'
• Hero's selfless final act offers some solace'

Monday stories

• NTSB gets surveillance video
• Leland girl killed in crash laid to rest

Sunday stories

• Close-knit town asks to mourn in private
• Work finishes on damaged radio tower

Saturday stories

• Tower work complete, residents may return
• In wind, rain, workers chop up radio tower
• Radio tower well-known to local pilots

Friday stories

• Radio tower dismantled after helicopter crash
• Family of tiniest victim mourns flight crew
• Helicopter crash probe could take months
• Residents evacuating apartments near tower
• Witnesses describe the fiery crash
• Air Angels: 'We look at what's best for the patient'
• FAA under pressure to improve safety for EMS flights
• Crash turns focus on air transport safety
• Helicopter crew remembered as heroes
• Shock settles on emergency response crews

Thursday stories

• Aurora helicopter crash kills Air Angels crew, child
• Friends speak of Air Angels crew's dedication
• Witness: Debris rained down from the sky
• NTSB investigating cause of crash
• Police ask residents near crash to evacuate
• Last Air Angels crash in Fox Valley 5 years ago