From 1998 to 2005, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, 89 medical helicopter crashes killed 75 people; 47 of the incidents were at night.

In 2006, after an apparent increase in crashes in previous years drew considerable public attention, researchers from
John Hopkins University reported on an analysis of medical helicopter crashes since 1983.

The researchers said 56 percent of the fatal crashes were at night, and 77 percent occurred when weather conditions required pilots to fly primarily by instruments instead of using visual cues.

It was not known Sunday how many medical helicopter crashes have occurred since 2005. But in a letter to Congress in May 2007, the Association of Air Medical Services cited a “dramatic reduction” in the number of such accidents in the previous 18 months.

In June, in a different kind of medical tragedy, a Cessna 550 airplane carrying two pilots and four members of the University of Michigan’s organ transplant team crashed in Lake Michigan after takeoff from Milwaukee, killing everyone on board.

Advertisement