Police aviation found lacking
Tampa, Florida - Research indicates the Tampa Police Department's aviation unit has one of the worst accident records in the country.
And requirements to become a Tampa police pilot are so minimal that most officers come nowhere close to qualifying for most commercial helicopter pilot positions.

The NTSB says each of the four Tampa police helicopter crashes that occurred during the past 10 years was caused by human error. The police department disputes the NTSB's finding.
"We happen to believe otherwise,'' said Deputy Chief Scott Cunningham, who blames two of the accidents on mechanical failures. "Whether we agreed with them or not, we went back and conducted training. I question the characterization of being the third worst in the nation,'' Cunningham said. "We'd have to take a look at that same data and everything else to make a determination as to how we fall out against other agencies.''

A review of 10 years of law enforcement accidents listed in the NTSB database showed that Tampa's aviation unit compiled the third-worst accident record in the country. Only the Alaska State Police and California Highway Patrol, both of which cover much larger territories, have had more accidents.

The aviation unit has six aircraft, six pilots, six observers - officers who sit next to the pilot, operate the cameras and keep in contact with the ground units - and three maintenance people to service the aircraft. The unit averages 260 hours of flying time a month. During the past 10 years, four accidents resulted in one death, three people seriously injured and four officers suffered minor injuries.

Compare that with the New York City Police Department. It has six choppers and flies an average of 300 hours a month. In the past 10 years, it had no accidents or injuries. The Houston Police Department has eight aircraft and flies an average of 450 hours a month. During that same time, it had one accident, resulting in a minor injury. And the Los Angeles Police Department flies 18 aircraft, racks up 1,800 flight hours a month and had no accidents in the past 10 years.

Former Tampa police pilot Don Olney, who retired in February and was a southeast regional director of the Airborne Law Enforcement Association, called his former unit's accident record embarrassing. "It surprises me,'' Olney said, "because it concerns me, and that's where the need for specialized training would come into play.''

To be a Tampa police flight officer or pilot, an applicant must be an officer, have a commercial license in both single-engine planes and helicopters, and have 250 hours of helicopter flight time.
The required flight time is far less than the hours required for commercial helicopter pilots. A review of several commercial pilot job openings showed they required a minimum of 1,500 hours of helicopter flight time. Some required at least 3,000 hours.

Cunningham says the department hires veteran pilots. "The last two pilots that we hired as police flight officers were ex-military pilots with over a thousand hours,'' he said. "We greatly exceed what the FAA requires as a minimum.'' Cunningham says that before a pilot can take up a chopper on his own, a minimum of 500 helicopter flight hours are required.

Olney, however, disputes that. "They've allowed people to fly helicopters as pilot in command before they get 250 hours,'' he said. "People can fly over the city and take calls before they get their 250 hours, and they call it training.''

Once certified, Tampa police pilots are supposed to receive refresher training every six months, according to the aviation unit's operations manual. But a city audit dated April 2002 found that police pilots were trained once a year. In some cases, including that of former chief pilot Jeff Fife and current flight supervisor Randall Miller, the training gap spanned years, records show.

Cunningham agreed the training wasn't being done in a manner consistent with the manual's requirements.
Records also show that until the department bought three Bell helicopters in 2001, most of the training was done in-house by Fife and Miller.
Gary Mock, an Orlando flight instructor with 30 years of experience, said it's less expensive for departments to train in-house than to send their pilots to factory schools or bring in consultants. There's a catch with in-house training, Mock said. "If the trainer has deficient training, then he creates bad habits, and those bad habits lead to other deficiencies, and then he trains a new pilot with the same deficiencies. So it's a self-perpetuating problem,'' Mock said.
"You also have an issue with familiarity. You have pilots that are training friends, other pilots that are friends, so consequently you'll have a tendency to let them get away with a little bit more.''

Hiring consultants can be expensive. Lunsford Air Consulting of Ormond Beach told Tampa police it would cost the department $10,500 to provide six pilots with emergency refresher training.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office brings in Lunsford every six months to provide refresher training for its pilots. In Pinellas County, the sheriff's office said it tries to send its pilots out at least once every other year to specialized schools.
In the past 10 years, the Hillsborough sheriff's department had one helicopter crash, and Pinellas had none. Both agencies have dual controls and try to fly with two pilots. Tampa has single-control aircraft.

In his 15 years with the air service, Olney said, the unit never had a formal training program. "We never had a complete manual that was signed off on by the department.''
Cunningham said he is under the impression the aviation unit has a formalized training program. "There should be a master training file that shows all this is going on, and if it's not, we'll take a look at it and find out why it isn't,'' he said.

In 1995, police flight observer Norris Epps, who was not wearing a life preserver, escaped the wreckage when a department chopper slammed into Tampa Bay. Epps drowned trying to make it to shore. The NTSB found that Epps couldn't swim and "was not briefed on the use of the life preserver.'' Months after Epps' drowning, records show, several pilots and observers attended a "drown proofing'' course at a local public pool.
Eight years later, records show, several new pilots and observers have had no such training.
Police spokesman Joe Durkin said the department held a water survival course in 2001 but couldn't say who attended or who was trained. "I think there is difficulty in ascertaining who's had what training as easily as we'd like,'' Cunningham said.

Training and experience separate the best units from the worst, Mock said. "You either train and you get your experience,'' he said, "or you end up paying for it in machines and people.''