Word: terrain
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...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...
Wayne Kirby followed the standards, yet he and three passengers still died. Many aviation-safety experts believe such crashes do follow a pattern, one that looks a lot like Kirby's last flight: pilots launch in flyable conditions, only to be confronted midflight by unexpected foul weather, darkness and terrain that they are unequipped to handle. "The FAA says they need to study the situation some more," says Vernon Albert, one of the industry's top safety experts. "That's garbage. They need to get off their butts." (See a story about surviving disasters...
However, not much prevention has happened since 1988. Variations on a simple chain reaction - where pilots fly without instruments in low visibility or at night, lose their bearings or make bad decisions, and crash into terrain - caused 80% of all helicopter-ambulance accidents reviewed by the Congressional Research Service in 2006. "The same accidents keep happening over and over," says Stacey Friedman, founder of Safemedflight.org, which advocates for crash victims' families. Her sister Erin Reed was a nurse who died in a medical-helicopter crash in Puget Sound...
...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...
...Bells of St. Sebastian,” where candles carried by singers in tightly rehearsed blocking formations added visual appeal to the song. The cast moved on a large, white double staircase that, despite its ambitious design, ultimately detracted from the show by revealing stagehands and by providing unstable terrain for the stiletto-clad female cast members. Lighting was also often complicated and distracting, but the performance of the cast members was captivating enough to render these elements mostly irrelevant. “Nine” conveyed a clear message: appreciate what you have when you have it. Though this...