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Risk Management Programs Needed

Air Safety Week, August 15, 2005

U.S. helicopter air ambulance companies are being asked to adopt better safety practices, in the form of risk management programs, in the wake of a series of accidents that have killed 60 people since 2000.

The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) guidance was hardly on the street when it was criticized by Linda Goodrich, vice president of the union representing FAA inspectors, who charged that the message had "no teeth," in that the FAA was recommending but not requiring compliance.

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The guidance was issued Aug. 1 to the FAA's flight standards district offices. Notice No. N8000.301, titled "Operational Risk Assessment Programs for Helicopter Emergency Medical Services," was intended to provide guidance to the FAA's principal inspectors (PI) regarding risk assessment programs that could be used by helicopter ambulance operators.

The accident rate for U.S. operators is similar to that experienced by Australia, which had the world's first air ambulance operation, the Royal Flying Doctor Service. According to a 1994 report on the safety of helicopter aeromedical transport in Australia, "Helicopters flown at night under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) appear to represent a high-risk subgroup." (See www.mja.com.au/public/issues/182_01_030105/hol10418_fm.html)

The FAA may upgrade the guidance to the force of regulation, but such rulemaking can take a year or more to develop. An FAA official said the notice just published encourages the operators to act now.

Risk Assessment Programs

Extracts of the FAA's notice:

Introduction. HEMS [helicopter emergency medical services] operate in a demanding environment. They provide an invaluable service to the nation by providing crucial, safe, and efficient transportation of critically ill and injured patients to tertiary medical care facilities. While the contribution of HEMS is profound as a component of the nation's medical infrastructure, from an operational standpoint, it is a commercial aviation activity performed by air carrier operators. It therefore must be conducted with the highest level of safety. ...

Review of Recent Accident Data

(1) A preliminary review of the commercial HEMS accidents from January 1998 through December 2004 revealed that CONTROLLED FLIGHT INTO TERRAIN (CFIT), INADVERTENT FLIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS (IMC), and LACK OF OPERATIONAL CONTROL are predominant factors, particularly at night and during low visibility conditions. Of the 27 fatal HEMS accidents, 21 occurred during night operations. Of the 21 night accidents, 16 of the operations originated under visual flight rules (VFR); the pilots inadvertently flew into IMC conditions, resulting in a CFIT accident.

(2) This preliminary review revealed that inadequate risk assessment and management deficiencies may have contributed to many recent fatal accidents in HEMS operations. Notice N8000.293, Helicopter Emergency Medical Services Operations, provides a recommendation [emphasis added] that HEMS operators emphasize a safety culture within their organization by applying basis system safety attributes and risk management techniques to operations. Operators were also advised [emphasis added] to apply safety attributes or risk/management strategies to each flight. ...

Basic Concepts. System Safety Risk Management techniques optimize safety by identifying operational hazards and related risk, and eliminating or mitigating them to a safe state ...

Action. PIs [FAA's principal inspectors] assigned to HEMS operators should review the content of this notice and provide a copy of this notice to their assigned operators ? Operators should be strongly encouraged to implement a risk assessment and management program ... to maintain safe operations.

Source: www.faa.gov/library/manuals/examiners_inspectors/8000/media/n8000-301.doc

Government Industry

Risk Management Programs Needed

Air Safety Week, August 15, 2005

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