# Surge in crashes scars air ambulance industry



## Jon (Jul 21, 2005)

Surge in crashes scars air ambulance industry

By Alan Levin and Robert Davis, USA TODAY

The helicopter flight to take heart patient Jerry Leonard from one Indiana hospital to another should have been routine. 

But on the night of the trip, April 20, 2004, the pilot on the Air Evac Lifeteam air ambulance apparently forgot to adjust the helicopter's altimeter, federal records show. When he slammed the helicopter carrying Leonard into a hillside near Boonville, Ind., the cockpit gauge showed he was 310 feet off the ground.

"Boy, I screwed up," pilot Richard Larock told an emergency worker who responded to the crash. 

Larock and two medical workers survived, but Leonard — 63 years old and strapped to a gurney — was flung from the helicopter, the stretcher strap forced against his throat. "It took 10 minutes for him to strangle to death," says his son, Keith Leonard.

The flight that was supposed to help save Leonard's life killed him instead.

A deadly trend of pilot errors, industry carelessness and poor government oversight has driven the number of air ambulance crashes to record levels. (Related story: Inexperience proves fatal)

Since 2000, 60 people have died in 84 crashes — more than double the number of crashes during the previous five years. During that period, more than 10% of the U.S. air ambulance helicopter fleet crashed. If commercial airlines lost the same proportion of large passenger jets as air ambulance companies lost helicopters, 90 airliners would crash each year.

Rest HERE (USA Today - Free, no signup):Clicky


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## Jon (Jul 21, 2005)

This has been a hot-button issue all year, and this is a very good article, co-written by Bob Davis (USA Today's resident EMS whacker)

Unfortunatly, as more and more insurance Co's mandate transfer to "their" hospital for the seriously sick and injured, and more and more advanced procedures are done only at specialty centers, we see more and more aeromedica transports.

We also see them for patients that are sent to a trauma center because a physcian doesn't want to take the risk of a BS patient really being a sick patient that he/she/it doesn't feel like dealing with....

Jon


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## Chimpie (Jul 21, 2005)

Yikes.  Boonville, IN?  One of my old Red Cross chapters is there.


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## Flight-LP (Jul 22, 2005)

Sad but true, the air business is doing what the ground services have done over the last few years. Companies are popping up everywhere trying to get their share of the substantial income that insurance companies pay for transport. All too often I see patients being transported by air for the wrong reasons. Physician or insurance request transfers are not justification for air transport. Even if it requires a long distance transfer. The basic premise of air transport is SPEED. A patient should only go by air if there is a reasonable suspicion that a transfer by ground would delay critically needed interventions or cause a detriment to the patients condition. Because of this influx of private for private for profit air systems, the overall safety record is being tarnished. Most aviation mishaps are due to pilot error or aircraft malfunction, with Air Evac Lifeteam having the worst record of all. Many companies are struggling to maintain longevity with their pilots, thus they are hiring pilots with minimum hours and minimal EMS experience. Add to the dilemma cheap, obsolete aircraft like the Bell 206's that AEL flys and you have a recipe for disaster. Plus many larger companies like AEL are offering "membership" programs. $50 a year and your covered for all transports. So many people who purchase these memberships are completely bypassing the 911 system and are calling their own helicopter. Not smart, not medically justified as these memberships allow a helicopter for ANY transport, bottom line its just plain stupid. Because of this, the traditional hospital based programs who focus on the patients who truly need a helicopter have to suffer. Personally, it makes me quite bitter!!!!!


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