JEMS.com Editor’s Note:Click here to read JEMS Editor-in-Chief A.J. Heightman’s October From the Editor column, “Change Should Be in the Air“and Dr. Bryan E. Bledsoe’s October column, “Houston We Have a Problem” on Medevac crashes.
FEDERICKSBURG, Va. — In the last year, a dozen medical evacuation helicopters have crashed nationwide. Twenty-eight people have died. The latest was a chopper carrying a 1-year-old child to a Chicago hospital. The patient and three crewmembers died when the helicopter hit some radio-tower lines on Oct. 15.
Closer to home, on Sept. 28, a chopper went down in foggy weather in Maryland’s Prince George’s County after the pilot had radioed twice for help. Four of the five people on board died. A terrible mid-air collision near Flagstaff, Ariz., in June between two medical helicopters killed seven people, including two patients, two nurses, and a paramedic.
What’s going on? Is this just a bad run or part of a trend? According to the National Transportation Safety Board, there were 14 medical helicopter crashes in 2007, resulting in 24 deaths and 13 in 2006, in which 10 people died.
