Do we have an image problem or safety problem?
 

G.Edward Newton, Vice Chairmen of the Helicopter Association International (HAI) tells a story of a career day event held in the Northeast part of the USA recently. HAI provided a drawing for an hour's dual instruction for two lucky young people attending the career day with a view towards promoting careers in the helicopter aviation industry.

After the first drawing, the parents of the first two winners refused to let their children fly in the helicopters citing safety concerns about helicopters. Newton states it took eight drawings before they found two sets of parents that would allow their children fly in the aircraft.

Alas, between the time of the drawing and the flights could take place, two helicopters in the area crashed and now the HAI cannot give the flights away.

During the week of the Montreal Safety Symposium....there were nine helicopter crashes worldwide killing 28 people.

The information above comes from Autorotate Magazine....Winter 2005 issue.

How many people were killed in the meantime in automobile accidents? And did the parents still drive their kids about? But cars are everywhere and invisible, while helicopters attract attention wherever they go.

So it's an image problem.

It seems to me (as a newcomer) that it is a safety issue. I think those not in the industry or interested in it, wouldn't know of the safety record. However, I'm sure they'd be shocked at the ease in which some measures could be taken, relatively inexpensively but aren't.

How many lives were safed in this week by helicopters and their crews picking up people from the streets ?
How many lives were saved by flying transplants even by adverse weather ?
We helicopter people do our jobs as save as it can be.
Yes, for sure, sometimes we have to carry some risk to do that, but it's worth it.
Helicopters are safe. For me one of the safest places to work since 33 years.
The problem is that nobody, except family and friends, worries seriously about people die in car crashes because to many accidents happen and, if a helicopter crashes it's in the media so everybody knows about.

Happy landings
Spencer17

I'm intrigued as to why these people attended a 'career day event' specifically set up to promote 'careers in the helicopter aviation industry' if they had safety concerns about helicopters.

Either they had the concerns before they arrived, in which case it was a rather strange idea for them to go, or something during the event lodged the concerns in their minds, in which case the organisers need to look at the speakers/stands for the next one.

I don't think it's just an image problem but also that many parents these days molly-coddle their children and try to wrap them in cotton wool rather than let them experience life.

As an example, a friend of mine's son is at Uni studying Marine Biology. He was looking forward to his year's placement in either Vancouver or Japan. But, next year, these places are not available. Why? The Institutes in those countries couldn't fill the placements. Students didn't want to go and study for a year in a foreign country and/or the parents didn't want them to go. In my day (Geez, that makes me sound old!) the placements abroad would have been snapped up.

It's all about perceived risk - even the smallest incident with aviation makes the headlines, even when there is no real danger. Because events are more widely reported, society believes there to be an increased danger. I get criticised for walking alone at night. Crimes against women in those circumstances aren't on the increase statistically and are comparatively but when they happen, they are headlines. Young men are the most likely to get attacked at night but the percieved risk is not there because these events are not so widely reported.

I've been told off for not locking my door at night but, I am more likely to come to harm by having a fire in the house and in that case, I don't want to be scrabbling about for keys, I want to get out. The chances of anyone trying to get into the house (even if anyone knew it was there!) are remote.

The issue with aviation though would be responsible reporting and you ain't gonna get that from a journalist. They have a vested interest in selling papers or airtime and therefore will always make a sensational story out of a minor incident and they'll never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

As for the safety issue, are helicopter crashes more prevalent now than, say, 10/20/30 years ago? I don't know the answer but I suspect not.

Cheers

Whirls

Seems to me it's just human nature to focus on the risks. You're never going to see a newspaper headline "Helicopter lands safely, everybody survives" because it isn't news. We get a false perspective on the world because that's actually exactly what we want to get. We don't want to hear that we're 99% not likely to get burgled this year, somehow we want to fear that 1% chance that we might. I've got 11 years no-claims on my motorcycle yet well-meaning friends and relatives are always trying to convince me to stop riding because it's "dangerous".

I think the trouble is we're slowly being convinced that the world has to be safe, and if it's not then it has to be somebody's fault (and they can then be sued for it.) It's our duty to be hardworking, not risk-taking tax-paying units. It's irresponsible and a burden on our society's finances for us to smoke, climb mountains, want to canoe across the channel, or fly unnecessarily. I fear the world in which all the risk and danger is removed. Sounds like some kind of '70s b-movie dystopia.

Si

bullshit baffles brains
 

I can make the statistics tell you what ever your want to

give me a pie chart & an ice block & ... Alaska here i come!

people will read what ever they want into what ever blurb last heard- it all depends on the eskimo
of course how convincing/skilled the ice-salesman is makes a difference too.

did anyone bother to take any of the parents aside & determine what reservations they had, & perhaps dispell a few urban legends 'myth busters style'

i'd rather put my kids in a helo than a plank any day of the week, whether i was flying or not.