Flight Safety Foundation and Air Methods, the world’s largest air ambulance operator, have begun a two-year project designed to use flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) — sometimes known as flight data monitoring — to gather safety information on helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) operations.
The project — financed through a grant to the Foundation from the estate of Manuel S. Maciel, founder of Manny’s Sonoma Aviation, a full-service fixed base operation in Santa Rosa, California, U.S. — is designed to identify safety risks in HEMS operations and develop procedures to eliminate them. The HEMS industry in the United States has experienced a surge in accidents in recent years, including 146 HEMS crashes between 1998 and 2008 — 50 of them fatal. In 2008 alone, there were 13 accidents, including nine fatal accidents, and 29 fatalities, according to data developed by Ira Blumen, M.D., program and medical director of the University of Chicago Aeromedical Ne…
