Federal officials are expected today to recommend more-stringent flight standards for air-ambulance services nationwide after a recent surge in accidents.
A special report by the National Transportation Safety Board will focus on “systemic safety issues” found in seven fatal air medical accidents since 2003, including the crash of a Beech E-90 air ambulance near Rawlins, Wyo., on Jan. 11, 2005.
That flight, operating as Yampa Valley Air Ambulance, left Steamboat Springs to take a patient from Rawlins to Casper. Three crew members died.
There have been 118 air-ambulance accidents in the United States since 1990; in 60 percent of the incidents, the helicopter or plane was operating under less-rigorous flight standards that cover all general aviation flying, The Denver Post’s review of NTSB statistics shows. Three-quarters of the accidents involved helicopters; 40 included fatalities.
Since 1994, Colorado has had six air-ambulance accidents. Three of those killed a total of nine people.
In the Rawlins accident, the plane was approaching the airport when it crashed just below the crest of a 7,270-foot ridge, about 2 1/2 miles from the runway, according to the NTSB’s report. The crash killed the pilot and two flight nurses and severely injured the fourth occupant, a flight paramedic.
The pilot had been briefed about snow showers in the Rawlins area, the NTSB said, and accident investigators found thick coatings of ice on critical surfaces of the wrecked plane.
Because the aircraft was on a flight to pick up a patient, it operated under federal aviation regulations that are less strict than those required for flight legs that transport patients.
It’s expected that the NTSB will recommend extending the more-stringent standards to all legs of air-ambulance flights.
When a patient is on board, flight crews operate under Federal Aviation Administration air taxi and charter regulations that have stricter rules for flying under low-visibility conditions. The more-stringent regulations also limit the duty time of pilots to 14 hours in a row.
These rules “give a pilot more information to make the decision to go or not to go,” said Ed MacDonald, a helicopter pilot for 37 years and secretary of the Air Medical Safety Advisory Council.
The NTSB can only recommend a tightening of air medical flight standards. The FAA must change the rules.
Safety experts also are trying to reduce pressures on air medical operators competing to get in the air faster for an emergency, and to discourage air-ambulance “shopping” by those who need the medical services.
Weather conditions prompted another medevac team to decline the Rawlins flight at one point before the Steamboat Springs crew was recruited for the job.
To combat the shopping of runs, air medical teams are promoting a system that calls for them to alert each other when one pilot rejects a flight because of extreme weather, MacDonald said.
Safety experts also highlight the danger of having air-ambulance operators market their services by how fast they can take off in an emergency.
“It takes X amount of time to get an aircraft off the ground safely, and we’re not going to cut any corners,” he said.
Ron Fergie, a helicopter pilot for an emergency medical service in Idaho and president of the National EMS Pilots Association, said more can be done to improve safety, including using night-vision goggles. The industry, he said, needs to “combine new technology with better training and better decision-making.”
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-820-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
Computer-assisted reporting editor Jeffrey A. Roberts contributed to this report.
PAST ACCIDENTS IN THE REGION
Colorado and Wyoming air-ambulance accidents with injuries or fatalities:
July 15, 2005 – Four people, including a patient and a nurse, injured when a Gates Learjet 35A landed on its nose wheel and left the runway at Eagle County Regional Airport. The flight originated in Aspen.
June 30, 2005 – Three killed when an Agusta A119 helicopter crashed while landing near Mancos. The pilot, nurse and paramedic had found a 14-year-old drowning victim near Farmington, N.M., then were sent to the Red Arrow Mines area to aid an injured logger.
Jan. 11, 2005 – Pilot and two nurses killed and one seriously injured when a Beech E-90 crashed while landing at Rawlins Municipal Airport in Wyoming. The flight originated in Steamboat Springs.
March 19, 2003 – Three injured when a Beech E-90 crashed into mountainous terrain southeast of Kremmling. The Flight for Life flight, with a pilot, nurse and paramedic aboard, originated in Grand Junction.
Dec. 14, 1997 – Four people, including a patient, killed when a Bell 407 helicopter flew into power lines while taking off from an auto-accident site in Littleton. The air ambulance had come from a hospital in Aurora.
Source: National Transportation Safety Board
