Alouette3
Thanks for your comments. I certainly have respect for both US and European operations, and constructive debate may benefit both, long term. Your comments ref statistics - or lack of them - in the US don't surprise me!
SASless
Pleased we are converging on a common understanding of the issues here.
And both; I respect your comments ref pressure on some pilots if they are too focussed on the life saving element. It would be nice to think they would be professional enough not to be influenced, but alouette3 at least is at the coal face and SASless has loads of experience, so I'll take your points. I guess with far less regulational constraint than in Europe there is more scope for subjective go/no go decisions and therefore opportunity for the overt Type As, as you say SAS, to sometimes take too big a risk to try and save a life.
Homonculus; no big deal, but I still think the surgeon parallel has some relevance. There can still be pressures to expedite procedures to minimise operation duration. Having said that, the presentation of error is not as dramatic as a helo accident, I grant you!