Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Carla

 

I work with the Helicopter crews on a regular basis and yes what they do can be really risky at times.  At times they fly right at the edge of flight conditions, why ? because if they don't, people die.  We [Firefighters] try to set up the safest landing zones possible and even then sometimes it's just not enough.  Helicopters are really vulnerable during take off and landing due to the fact that they are not at full power and they have no forward momentum to give them mobility.  a sudden big wind gust or downdraft can spell disaster.

 

83 crashes in 6 years in the US is not bad...just using my area where we have 4 helicopters as an example.  those four each fly 6-10 missions a day 24 hours a day 365 days a year.. so if at a minimum we assume 3 flights a day you are talking around 1000 flights a year per helicopter now take that times 650 helicopters x 6 years = 4.2 million flights and out of all those flights 83 crashed

-----Original Message-----
From: Sky Ranch
Sent: Dec 2, 2006 3:05 PM
To: Ridecamp
Subject: [RC] Another helicopter crash

Last year there was a fatal helicopter crash in the mountains near here.  Three people were killed, the pilot and two flight nurses.  There was much speculation locally, among the first responders, that the rescue helicopters routinely used are too small and are NOT rated for high altitude especially with extra weight.  Now, this could certainly simply be gossip, I am making no claims that this is true.  In this case, the helicopter crashed just before landing to pick up an injured logger, at around 9700 ft elevation, in full view of everyone at the site.

 

There is one statement in the article that is quite startling to me: 

 

"Approximately 650 helicopter ambulances that respond to emergencies operate in the United States, according to the Association of Air Medical Services, a group that represents the industry. Eighty-three have crashed since 2000, killing 66 people."

 

That sounds really high to me, statistically.  Here's the link to the full article:

 

http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/06/news061202_1.htm

 

Carla Richardson

Colorado

 

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