NTSB notes surge in medical chopper crashes
Published 10:38 pm Wednesday, September 1, 2010
WASHINGTON — An accident this week in Arkansas has boosted to 21 the number of people that have been killed so far this year in medical helicopter and plane crashes, renewing concerns about the safety of such operations.
An Air Evac Lifeteam helicopter crashed Tuesday near Scotland, Ark., killing the pilot, a nurse and a paramedic. It was the fourth fatal accident this summer: A medical helicopter crash in Tucson, Ariz., killed three people on July 28; a crash near Kingfisher, Okla., on July 22 killed two people and seriously injured a third, and an air ambulance plane crashed July 4 in Alpine, Texas, killing five.
“This is very alarming,” said National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt. “The safety board continues to be very concerned about the safety of this industry.”
The number of deaths represents a sharp spike from last year, when only six people were killed in one plane and nine helicopter accidents. There were 28 people killed in 2008 in EMS helicopter crashes — the most medical helicopter fatalities in any year, according to NTSB records dating back to 2000. There were 31 people killed in 2004 in a combination of medical helicopter and plane accidents, the most deaths in a year in the air medical industry in the last decade, NTSB records show.
The increase in accidents and fatalities reflects, in part, the growth in the emergency medical transport industry, which took off in the early 1980s. Today, there are about 800 helicopters and about 150 planes, according to an industry trade organization.
