The debate against single/twin engine and single/multi crew will go on for ever until the laws are changed and enforced. Unfortunately, we as pilots often don't have the choice to decide. Sure we can say no to certain flights, but as in this case for example (which might have happened), when someone knocks on your door late at night and asks you to go fetch a heart urgently before it and/or the recipient dies, what are you going to say??? I can only do it in the twin... But lets say the twin is down, not fueled, or parked in the back of the hangar and it will take an hour to get it airborne...and the perfectly good old 206 is parked in front, fueled and ready to go... 9 out of 10... if not 10 out of 10 of us, who all have done these flights before in a singles and on our own (with out the added rush of loss of life pressure) would say lets go.....
Flyting -
As a professional pilot I for one would do my utmost not to allow those sort of consideratons to influence my judgement, and I would further venture that its exactly this sort of "lets go" attitude that is a major factor in the accident rate for US EMS related flights being so high.
Unfortunately I can see from other replies that this sort of mindset seems to be ingrained in a majority of US pilots and until a change in the rules is forced upon a reluctant helicopter EMS sector, nothing will change and accidents such as this will continue to happen at an alarming rate.
BC