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Buying more expensive equipment doesn't guarantee safety, however. As the FAA's Peggy Gilligan points out, a number of programs that fly beefy, dual-pilot helicopters with sophisticated safety technologies have crashed, while programs flying small, single-pilot helicopters with nothing more advanced than radio altimeters have perfect safety records. "Operating a medical helicopter is not an inexpensive proposition, and it's not something that people do lightly," says Dawn Mancuso, CEO of the Association of Air Medical Services...
...years, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has pushed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to impose tougher regulations on the medical helicopter industry. In 2008 the board placed rules requiring terrain awareness technology, flight and weather tracking systems, and stricter weather minimums at the top of its "most wanted" list of changes to reduce fatalities. The board first recommended these changes three years ago. Had the FAA implemented them, 29 of the last 55 accidents could have been prevented, says NTSB vice chairman Robert Sumwalt. "We want to pressure the FAA to make changes so that these crashes stop occurring...
...January, the FAA agreed to make one of the changes, requiring helicopters to fly under the same weather rules whether or not a patient is on board. Other changes are being studied but will come slowly; the agency just released its first, voluntary guidelines regarding terrain awareness systems in December. "We don't feel that the FAA is moving fast enough," Sumwalt says...
Should such expensive fixes be required? The FAA thinks not. For years the agency has worked collaboratively with the helicopter EMS industry, looking for ways to improve safety by passing voluntary guidelines and only occasionally resorting to the slow process of imposing new regulations. "We will continue to pursue a very aggressive voluntary campaign," Gilligan says. "Our goal is to identify what we can do quickly together to reduce risk...
...pilots interviewed for this story said they would prefer new FAA rules requiring night vision goggles and instrument flying technology on all medical helicopters. But some worry such rules might force companies out of business. "From a pilot's perspective, it's utopia" to have night vision goggles, says Gary Sizemore, a medical helicopter pilot and former president of the National EMS Pilots Association. "Is that fiscally realistic? I kind of doubt it. It's bad to say that we don't want to spend the money to save people's lives. But the reality is that somebody...