The accident rate for U.S. helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) flights has declined significantly in recent years, but the percentage of fatal accidents and the severity of injuries remain largely unchanged, researchers say.
In a report published in the January 2016 issue of Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance, researchers from the University of Texas and the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University said they were “surprised to see a steady decline in the accident rate over the 15-year period” from 1999 through 2013, the most recent year for which complete data were available to calculate accident rates.1 Aircraft flight hours were used as the measure of exposure in all rate calculations.
Their surprise stemmed from earlier studies showing that the accident rates for EMS aircraft (including airplanes) increased steadily from 1996 through 2005,2,3 and from an estimate by other researchers that a HEMS pilot flying …
