Ambulansetjeneste i USA: Aldri snakk om to flygere

Story of the Week NTSB: Pilot Tried to Outrun Storm The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board issued similar rulings in late January involving two helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) crashes involving pilots who flew into localized storms. The first crash, which occurred Sept. 25, 2009 near Georgetown, S.C., involved a Carolina Life Care Eurocopter AS350B2 operated by Omniflight Helicopters. Three people died in the crash, the pilot, a flight nurse and a flight paramedic. According to the report, the pilot decided to “continue the VFR flight into an area of IMC, which resulted in the pilot’s spatial disorientation and a loss of control of the helicopter.” NTSB noted “inadequate oversight of the flight by Omniflight’s Operational Control Center” as a contributing factor to the accident, which happened at around 11:30 p.m. as the crew was headed back from dropping off a patient. The second accident took place on March 25, 2011 near Brownsville, Tenn. The Hospital Wing Eurocopter AS350B3, registered to Memphis Medical Air Center, went down after heading straight into a weather cell, resulting in the deaths of the pilot and two flight nurses. The safety board ruled that attempting to fly into “adverse weather, resulting in an encounter with a thunderstorm with localized IMC, heavy rain and severe turbulence,” is the probable cause of the crash. The report’s narrative describes the pilot’s apparent state of mind leading up to the crash. In a conversation with an oncoming shift pilot, the pilot allegedly said he “wanted to get the helicopter out” after sitting on the helipad at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital and waiting for the flight nurses.