Word: radio
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...only their instruments. In any case, most helicopters lack the necessary technology. So when a helicopter pilot flies into a cloud and can't see out his windows, it is - by definition - an emergency. The pilot must simultaneously descend until he can see lights on the ground, toggle multiple radio frequencies to inform nearby planes and airports that he is flying blind, maintain control of a twitchy aircraft in conditions he is not trained to handle, over terrain he does not know and cannot see. When flight nurses have nightmares, this is the picture on the backs of their eyelids...
...launch. He flew his bright yellow Bell 407 helicopter to the hospital, picked up the patient, and took off for Houston at 2:46 a.m. Two minutes later, Kirby was flying 600 ft. above dense forest at 122 m.p.h., near the spot where the first pilot aborted. Kirby lost radio contact with the hospital in Houston. His helicopter dropped suddenly, to 100 ft. Its rotor sliced into thick pine trees. The cabin smashed into three pieces and landed upside down, drenched in jet fuel. Kirby, the patient and two medical crew members died. (See a story about water landings...
...driving your car, talking on your cell phone, adjusting your radio and drinking a Coke in a thunderstorm," says Kevin High, manager of the trauma program at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville and president of the Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association. "Now do it in a helicopter that doesn't have advanced avionics because the company doesn't want to spend the money. That's how you get into trouble...
Some regulators and industry leaders believe this is an oversimplification. As the FAA's Gilligan points out, a number of EMS programs that fly beefy, dual-pilot helicopters with sophisticated safety technologies have crashed, while other programs flying small, single-pilot helicopters with nothing more advanced than radio altimeters have perfect safety records. "When we introduce new technology, we want to solve the problem," Gilligan says. "But we have to be very careful not to introduce new risks...
These conditions are perfect for flying, yet both Pietro and his co-pilot Dario Garcia, 32, stay busy. As Pietro climbs over the snowy streets of Cleveland, Garcia monitors the instrument panel to make sure the helicopter's engines don't overload. Next Garcia uses the radio to warn two local airport towers, two hospitals and all the planes in the area that his bright yellow helicopter is about to traipse directly across their dedicated flight paths...