Choppers

From USA Today...

Expert: Air-ambulance crews among most likely to die
By Alan Levin

• Air-ambulance helicopters have the worst fatal crash record in aviation, and their crews are among the most likely to die on the job.
  

• More dangerous than logging or deep-sea fishing.
  

• Relatively few patients have died: 34 out of about 4.3 million transported since 1972. Air-ambulance flights spend more time flying without a patient than while carrying one. A typical emergency run involves three trips: one to pick up the patient; another to transport the victim; and a third to return to the helicopter base after the patient is dropped off.
  

• The Federal Aviation Administration has pushed the industry to adopt stricter safety standards but has emphasized voluntary change because it can be accomplished faster than writing new regulations.
  

• Since 1972, 264 people have died in air-ambulance crashes. Nine fatal crashes since December 2007 have killed 35 people -- the highest death toll in the industry's history.
  

• Canada has not had a fatality since 1977.
  

• Competition to make the helicopter flights, which can pay as much as $10,000, could be driving up the accident rates.
  

Read the whole article at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-03-medchopper_N.htm

Many patients have received life-saving care because of timely arrival to the hospital via helicopter. With any type of transport, there is inherent risk. This article highlights that right now there seems to be a higher risk than what could be achieved.

The competition factor is intriguing. In the news business, there is also intense competition. When there's major news, helicopters are often called into action. A news helicopter belonging to Houston ABC affiliate KTRK crashed on October 13, 2008 en route to the scene of a triple shooting. In another Houston fatality in 2000, the pilot of KRIV’s helicopter died when SkyFox crashed. In 2007, two choppers collided over the skies of Phoenix. Four people died.