As a pilot with Mercy Air down south, I'd like to extend my sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and to the REACH organization, our cousins to the north. I have worked with a few ex-REACH employees and all held the company in very high esteem. I'd like to point out that there are very few ex REACH employees.
The pilot was highly experienced in all areas associated to this mission: aircraft, area, EMS. The aircraft was proven and capable. The company has never had a fatal accident in it's history.
This one is a little hard to accept. You cannot point to any specific thing and say, "Well, there you have it, the writing was on the wall." We all operate under the unspoken assumption that if you put the best pilot in the best aircraft all will be well. Certainly NVG's or a Ground proximity warning system would have been a nice addition to his cockpit, but you can't really fault REACH for not having them. How many operators actually have these things at this point? My company doesn't. REACH has several private instrument approaches to local hospitals that they have developed, a costly initiative. My company doesn't have those either. My company IS looking at a wire warning system. That would be nice to have. NVG's would be better, but at $100,000 conversion per aircraft, I don't think I'll see it in my career. I guess it begs the question "How far do you go to guarantee safety?"
I think this accident illustrates, better than most, that EMS in itself, is inherently dangerous. We don't choose the time, the place or the conditions that we fly. We make critical decisions as we go, and fly as far as we safely can. It's a constant razor's edge. If you wanted to eliminate all risk of a weather incursion in Northern California, you simply would not fly all winter.