Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Med Flight chopper lacked safety equipment; local pilots quiet after loss of colleague
The medical helicopter that crashed Saturday near La Crosse did not have two pieces of safety technology the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended to prevent crashes, but Gundersen Lutheran’s new air ambulance has both, said hospital spokesman Chris Stauffer.
Mike Allen, senior vice president at Denver-based Air Methods, said the UW Hospital helicopter was not equipped with a computerized voice system to warn of approaching terrain or night vision goggles.
The NTSB recommended night vision goggles and the warning system in a 2006 report that suggested many fatal EMS flights could be prevented.
Studies have shown that flight into hills and other terrain is a common factor in helicopter EMS accidents, particularly during takeoff and landing. More accidents also happen at night and when patients are not on board, studies show.
Federal regulators have not required the use of either technology but encouraged companies to voluntarily install them.
Allen said his company decided to do so last year and was in the process of retrofitting its 348 helicopters with both pieces of equipment by the end of 2011. About 40 percent of its aircraft already have night vision goggles, while 6 percent have the so-called Terrain Awareness and Warning Systems, he said.
Gundersen has not made pilots available for interviews since the Saturday night crash that killed a pilot, nurse and surgeon from UW Hospital as they returned to Madison after dropping off a patient.
“They’re just not ready,” Stauffer said.
“It’s very hard for them,” said Karl Wellfare, an EMS pilot at Cleveland Metro Hospital in Ohio. “It’s a tight-knit community."
Wellfare did not know Med Flight pilot Steve Lipperer, but said a co-worker told him of the La Crosse crash when he showed up to work Sunday.
“Any time we hear a fellow pilot goes down, we take pause,” he said.
Started in 1992, Gundersen Lutheran’s MedLink flies about 600 missions a year, said Dr. Jeff Hillesland, medical director for the service. Three quarters of the flights are transfers from one hospital to another. The rest are responses in the field.
MedLink has four pilots, all employed by Air Methods, the same company that operated the Med Flight helicopter. Pilots work 12-hour shifts, with seven days on followed by seven days off. They fly a twin-engine American Eurocopter EC145 purchased last year.
It is a larger model than the EC135 used by Med Flight and essentially is a miniature emergency room, equipped with a ventilator, defibrillator and other life-saving equipment, Hillesland said.
The crew usually includes a nurse and paramedic.
Base cost for helicopter transport is $6,900, Stauffer said; variables such as distance and services provided can add to that fee.
Although many of the accidents that require air transport happen in bad weather, Hillesland said MedLink, like other helicopter services, has minimum weather requirements for flying. Fog is among the most common prohibitive factors, along with freezing rain and low cloud cover.
Hillesland said MedLink pilots rely on sight, not instruments, to fly. “If we can’t fly, because of those weather minimums, we don’t fly,” he said.
Wellfare, 30, began flying at age 17. He’s worked the last four years as an EMS pilot.
He thinks new technology, such as terrain warning systems, should be more common but said his job is no more dangerous than any other in the industry.
“I have a family just like (Lipperer),” he said. “I don’t feel like I’m doing anything unsafe.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story. Chris Hubbuch can be reached at chris.hubbuch@lee.net or (608) 791-8217.
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