By Bryan Butler M 36 October 2013
any organizations are looking at ways to help make the Helicopter E m e r g e n c y Medical Services (HEMS) safer.
The FAA is working with FAR Part 135 Operators along with Organization such as HAI, CAAMS and AAMT to bring in voluntary solutions. One simple solu tion to help alleviate many of the night HEMS Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) accidents is by changing the night VFR visibility minimums for FAR Part 135 HEMS Operations. But what should they be changed to? To help determine that answer let us first look at the root cause of many of our fatal HEMS accidents since January 2000. To find all of the HEMS accidents
on the NTSB web site
http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.asp takes more than a simple search. Although many of the HEMS accidents were con ducted under FAR Part 135, others were conducted under FAR Part 91. So to find as many accidents as possible required a search by aircraft type and operator. My search resulted in finding 152 HEMS accidents since January 2000, of which 44 were fatal. That equates to a 29% accident fatality rate in the HEMS industry, a rate that is just too high. Of the 47 fatal accidents weather
was a contributing factor in the acci dent in 22 of the accidents (or 47%). Reading the NTSB reports it is easy to see that there is a direct correlation between unaided night flights and weather, but is there a prominent fac tor? Yes, 73% or in 16 of the 22 weather
related fatal accidents the temperature and dew point were within 6° Fahrenheit, and the winds were less that 10 knots for the area where the flight was conducted. When those fac tors are present there is a high likeli hood of fog forming. Add in night unaided operations over a sparsely populated area and it's unlikely that the fog will be seen by the HEMS crews before it's a problem. To help address the weather related
accident issue, the FAA has implement ed changes to A021, by requiring slight increases to the FAR Part 135 weather planning minimums, and new docu mentation of our route planning. Most HEMS pilots have been doing this type of detailed flight planning for years just not documenting it. But is it enough? Many of the night HEMS accidents
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
