PPRuNe Forums - A109S Medevac Crash Brainerd Minnesota

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Quote:

Originally Posted by air pig (Post 10508970)

I work on fixed wing air ambulance in the UK and look in sadness and horror at the number of crashes or major incidients in the rotary wing EMS community particulary in the US. Reading both professional journals and other sources, the number of people killed over recent years in these incidents I'm afraid and I maybe flamed here that sometimes that some companies financial imperative may outweigh good judgemnt and lead to inadvertant pressuring the flightcrews to make decisions that on other days in other places that they would not make.
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The statistics from what I can find are between 2010 to 16 there were 46 accidents/incidents in which 20 had fatalities involved and in that a total of 50 crew and patients died.

I just completed a very quick review of all NTSB database EMS helicopter accidents for the period you stated. I found 2 accidents attributed to IIMC while either on the outbound leg for patient pickup, or with a patient onboard. The remaining IIMC accidents occurred returning to base. I believe the “management pressure into accepting flight” is ignorantly applied as the scapegoat blame.

The most intense pressure is self inflicted....based upon my experience flying EMS.

The Med Crews are generally Type A Personality kinds of folks....and far too many buy into the "We are Lifesavers who steal victims from the Grim Reaper...mentality." and even if unkowningly create an environment that can facilitate a Pilot making a bad call on weather.

Good weather....and plainly below minimums weather are easy calls.

It is the marginal weather that gets you in trouble.

Add in the fact that these spur of the moment SPIFR flights in the middle of the night do not allow for much time to prepare yourself.....as the "need" for a timely response is measured in mere minutes.

In this instance wasn't the aircraft returning to its home operating base? The environment and procedures should be 100% familiar to a home base crew, or maybe, familiarity caused a reduction in vigilance?

I cannot find any information about the flight details in any news article.

There is a graphic that shows the area of fog in the area that night.....with some clear areas surrounding the crash site but with dense fog at the crash site.

If they were operating in the clear areas and then returning to where the fog existed...that could have a bearing on the accident.

The Pilot for former US Army and at some point in his Army flying was assigned to flight duty on Sikorsky Blackhawks.

Looks like no or limited power to the rotor system.

NTSB preliminary