Perhaps the reason the Canadian system is so much safer is *because* it is so different? I really don't understand why the FAA don't grow a pair and regulate the industry properly.
From the article: "Shortly after midnight...a medical helicopter pilot, started across Choctawatchee Bay to pick up a hospital patient and transport him to a facility 60 miles away. Palcic, 63, was just two minutes into the flight of AIRHeart-1 when his crew radioed a dispatcher that he was turning back because of the thunder and lightning.
Moments later, Palcic's helicopter banked in clouds and plunged 700 feet into shallow waters, killing him, a flight nurse and a paramedic.
VFR at night over water with known thunderstorms in the area? And, this was a hospital to hospital transfer. Pure craziness.