National Newspaper Slams Industry

Armed with its own database on air ambulance mishaps and spurred by safety "experts" who say "someone needs to be uncomfortable," USA Today Monday published an extensive report on the safety of medical helicopter flights. The report, which ran across three pages of the national publication, suggests none of the safety improvements made in the airline industry have made it into the highly-lucrative air ambulance business.

The cover story reported that, since 2000, more than ten percent of the entire air ambulance fleet in the US has crashed, killing 60 people in 84 total mishaps. Despite that, the Gannett publication reported, the FAA has "failed time and again to take steps that might have averted tragedy and saved lives."

The article cited conflicting studies on reasons for the high rate of mishaps involving air ambulances. But "One possible explanation for the alleged overuse [of medical helicopters]: profit," the paper reported. "Air ambulance firms receive roughly $7,500 per flight from insurance companies or Medicare."

The authors went on to point out that other studies indicate medical flights are saving lives. Recent changes in medical practices -- including the deterioration of rural health care and the rise of regional trauma centers -- has led to the rapid increase in the pace of medical flights. And, alleges the paper, in the number of medical flight accidents.

The core of the story suggests that the FAA has failed to properly oversee the air ambulance industry. That failure to act, said former air ambluance company flight director Vernon Albert, is "almost criminal. Someone needs to be uncomfortable -- and not the guy riding in the back of the helicopter.

To some degree, air ambulance advocates agree. In 2000, an air ambulance industry trade group called on the FAA to mandate Crew Resoruce Management programs where pilots listen to their coworkers and monitor themselves, looking for signs of stress or fatigue. It's a program that has demonstrably worked within the airline industry. Accordingly, in July of that year, an industry committee forwarded to the FAA its suggestion for language that would create and maintain such a safety program.

"We dont' know what happened after that," said J. Heffernan, who led the committee's effort. The proposal was lost somehwere in the depths of Jane Garvey's FAA administration, the paper reported.

FAA inspectors also came under close scrutiny in the USA Today article. "FAA inspectors have been unable to keep up with the dramatic growth in the air ambulance industry," the paper reported. The NTSB, after investigating three air ambulance accidents last year, found FAA inspectors never went to the companies involved.

Jeff Guzetti manages NTSB investigations into accidents involving air ambulances.

"The safety board investigators are interested in the adequacy of FAA oversight of air ambullance companies, especially ones which conduct operations all over the country, but have one FAA office responsible for oversight," he told USA Today. While the number of air ambulance companies continues to grow at a remarkable rate, the number of FAA inspectors continues to fall.

Even the FAA admits its having trouble completing the number of inspections it would take to make a difference in air ambulance safety. A draft report by an agency task force investigating medical helo crashes sdaid the inspection effort is, in essence, a "hit or miss proposition."

Requests for more inspectors by the FAA were turned down by the Bush administration, according to the newspaper report.

FMI: www.faa.gov