SASless,
If the FAA had diligently performed their oversight responsibilities in the case of EMS operations I’m sure the accident rate would have been lower, maybe substantially so. The problem is that at the moment “going up for a look” when the weather reports are bad is only stupid, it’s not illegal unless one takes off from a controlled airport without a (Special VFR) clearance. “Yeah, there were some low clouds but the gaps were large so I was always legal…nudge, nudge, wink, wink”. How can an inspector refute that?
About things like losing surface light reference, I believe that in most cases this wasn’t a deliberate choice by the crew, but they rationalized themselves into this situation. Weather reports indicated that loss of surface reference (or IMC) was a serious possibility but “if I follow the highway until the ABC exit I should be able to see the lights of that farmhouse and I’ll just keep them out the right window until I can see over the ridge and that valley is usually clear of fog so I should be able to see XYZ…”
I’m sure there must be some pilots around who can always remain completely dispassionate and also always accurately identify the likelihood of certain conditions developing, and so always make the correct go/no-go decision. I’d like to meet at least one of them but so far I haven’t. This is why I’d like to take the weather go/no-go decision out of the sphere of “pilot interpretation” and instead make it a dispassionate numbers exercise. That will not guarantee that below-minimums weather will never be encountered during a flight, but should make it extremely unlikely and then only in the case of unforecast conditions.
Changing the mindset to the point where everyone follows the rules as a matter of routine without looking for ways around them will be a multi-year, probably multi-decade project and doomed to fail if the FAA will allow Joe Undercut’s Helicopters to flout the rules at will.
But please remember that the FAA can only do what Congress will fund them to do, and Congress is made up of hack politicians who see their job as pandering to each new fad and whim of the fickle public. This is why the FAA spend public money on “Guns in airline cockpits, yes or no?” and “the definition of natural quiet”. So if the public claim it’s a scandal that Joe isn’t allowed to run a rescue helicopter just because the gearbox leaks a quart of oil an hour and Joe has only one pilot and… then your friendly local member of Congress will make sure the FSDO listen to the “community’s concerns”. All the POIs I’ve ever met would be much happier weeding out the deadwood and helping the serious operators succeed rather than running bean-counting exercises but they have to work within the system. Until there is political hay to be made from enforcing realistic standards in EMS operations I fear the FAA will not really be allowed to do their job.