Med Flight helicopter didn't have recommended safety gear
The UW Med Flight helicopter that crashed near La Crosse did not have two pieces of safety technology recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration, but an official of the company that owned the craft said Monday it was installing them as quickly as it could on its 330-craft fleet.
Mike Allen, senior vice president at Denver-based Air Methods, said the helicopter was not equipped with a computerized voice system to warn of approaching terrain or night vision goggles for the pilot. Air Methods provided the craft, pilot and aircraft maintenance services under contract with University of Wisconsin Hospital.
Rescue officials in La Crosse County said that the helicopter struck a wooded bluff -- the kind of change in terrain the warning system is meant to alert pilots to -- shortly after takeoff Saturday night.
"It is the kind of circumstance, but we don't yet know what the causal factors of this accident were," Allen said.
Surgeon Darren Bean, nurse Mark Coyne and pilot Steve Lipperer were killed in the crash, now under investigation by the NTSB. There were no survivors.
The NTSB recommended night vision goggles and the computerized warning system in a 2006 report that suggested many fatal EMS flights could be prevented. The report came after the agency noted an increasing number of crashes involving medical helicopters and planes, some 55 over three years, involving more than 50 deaths.
The FAA has not required the use of either technology but encouraged companies to voluntarily install them.
A spokesman for the Association of Air Medical Services, a Virginia-based trade group, said that his group had not made a recommendation on the equipment to their membership, which includes Air Methods.
Christopher Eastlee said that the rate of air ambulance crashes had been down since 2005, considering the growing air time. Then two crashes occurred in December 2007, and the crash in La Crosse was the second nationally in 2008 involving EMS aircraft.
Allen said that Air Method decided last year to follow the FAA recommendations and was on pace to retrofit its fleet with both pieces of equipment by the end of 2011. About 40 percent of its craft already have night vision goggles, while 6 percent have the so-called Terrain Awareness and Warning Systems, he said.
"The primary limitation has been getting the equipment," Allen said. Demand for night-vision equipment by the military has meant it is often on back-order, and the terrain warning system was certified for helicopters only in late 2006, he said.
The cost of equipping a craft with both types of equipment was $100,000, but Allen said cost was not a factor in the rate at which aircraft were being equipped.
The American Eurocopter EC 135, which Med Flight had leased since August, was less than two years old, Allen said. Lipperer, who was an Air Method employee, received special training in the EC 135 and had almost a year's experience with it, Allen said. "He was absolutely well-qualified. He exceeded our standards."
The NTSB also recommended flight training for the medical personnel on EMS flights, something Allen said Air Method has long done. Safety training for medical personnel was provided in Madison by Air Method employees. Allen said that Air Method's accident rate was less than one fatal accident per 100,000 flight hours for the past 10 years.
NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said his agency will document the wreckage, look for anomalies in the craft and review the maintenance records and pilot's history as part of its investigation.
He said it was too early to say whether safety technology could have prevented the crash, the first for a UW Med Flight craft since the university hospital system started operating the air flight program in 1985.
Studies have shown that flight into hills and other terrain is a common factor in helicopter EMS accidents, particularly during takeoff and landing. More accidents also happen at night and when patients are not on board, studies show.
The NTSB said the warning system would improve safety by warning pilots 25 seconds or more before potential impact with terrain. In 17 of 55 accidents analyzed, the system might have helped avoid the crash, the report said.
Similarly, night vision goggles enhance pilots' ability to see and avoid obstructions such as wires, which are commonly hit, the NTSB said. In 13 of the 55 cases, goggles might have helped pilots take action to prevent accidents, the board said.
Goggles should be used only when pilots are flying visually and not using instruments, the NTSB said. Lipperer was flying visually, which Allen has described as a common practice.
The company had equipment on the helicopter to track it by satellite so workers could warn pilots heading into bad weather, Allen said. Weather was not a problem when Lipperer took off, he said. Rescuers reported, however, that fog impeded their efforts which began shortly after the craft dropped out of contact.
The company received data showing the flight took off but did not receive an expected update three minutes later, Allen said.
"At that point we suspected there may be problems and began trying to contact the aircraft," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Peter Thomson/La Crosse Tribune
An NTSB spokesman said it was too early to say whether safety technology could have prevented the crash of a UW Med Flight helicopter.
