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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
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