U.S. air-ambulances placed on Most Wanted Safety List

William Atkins
Wednesday, 04 February 2009 19:28

Science - Health

Safety concerns with air-ambulance fatalities in the United States have prompted a February 2009 hearing and a Most Wanted Safety Improvements List by the National Transportation Safety Board.


In addition, the Canadian safety record was compared at the NTSB hearing with the U.S. record, and it comes out on top due to more care and diligence on the part of the Canadian federal government with regulating its medical helicopter industry.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) states, “Helicopter EMS operations provide an important service to the public by transporting seriously ill patients or donor organs to emergency care facilities.”

However, it goes on to point out some U.S. problems, “The pressure to conduct these operations safely and quickly in all conditions, including during inclement weather, at night, and on unfamiliar landing sites, has the potential to increase EMS operational risk compared to normal passenger-carrying aviation operations.”

Dr. Ira Blumen, the program director of the University of Chicago Aeromedical Network, reported at the February 3, 2009 hearing of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that 264 people have died in the United States as the result of air-ambulance crashes since 1972.

The four-day NTSB hearing called “Safety of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) Operations” began on Tuesday, February 3rd in Washington, D.C.

The hearing is open to the public and is taking place in the Board Room and Conference Center at 429 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C.

It is also telecast on the NTSB’s website (http://www.ntsb.gov/default.htm ). The live Webcast can be found at on this NTSB website.

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