Airborne tragedies

Wednesday, July 2, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

Valid questions are being raised about the increasing use of helicopters in transporting patients to hospitals.

Nine crashes involving emergency airlifts have occurred nationally this year, killing 16 people, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Six of those people were killed Sunday — a seventh person, a flight nurse, was critically injured — when two medical helicopters collided in air near the Flagstaff (Ariz.) Medical Center.

Both The New York Times and the Associated Press, following Sunday’s crash, contacted experts who track the medical helicopter industry. Each quoted Dr. Bryan Bledsoe, a former flight paramedic who teaches at the University of Nevada School of Medicine.

Bledsoe said two out of three patients transported by helicopters have only minor injuries, but told the AP there is no push to raise the criteria because “the industry is driven by profit.”

Bledsoe also said that many times when helicopters are used, an ambulance could have actually gotten the patient to the hospital more quickly.

The Times reported that the national safety board, responding to a spate of accidents involving medical helicopters, authored a report in 2006 that put forth a number of recommendations for improving safety. But although the Federal Aviation Administration accepted all the recommendations, it has put only some of them into effect, the Times reported.

Without any doubt, medical helicopters have been instrumental in saving many lives. There are times when only a helicopter is able to efficiently respond, given the nature of the medical emergency or the terrain where the patient is located.

But this is an industry that is growing rapidly without sufficient rules or oversight. The accident statistics are proof that the FAA, the NTSB and the industry need to cooperate on setting better safety standards.