Another medical helicopter crash; 4 die

[ljwf22]

(CNN) -- A medical helicopter crashed into a field in suburban Aurora, Illinois, late Wednesday night, killing all four people on board, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Little is left of a medical helicopter that crashed Wednesday night in Aurora, Illinois, killing four people.

The helicopter was on its way from Valley West Community Hospital in the town of Sandwich to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago when it went down in a field, said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/16/chopper.crash/

That's nine in a year!

[CaliKid]

These medical copters need better pilots. Or they need to stop rushing so much. Yeah, I know sometimes it's a matter of life and death, but it does NOBODY any good if the med copter crashes and kills the crew.

[RainbowsAndGumdrops]

i have an old friend who's father was a pilot for American Airlines for her whole life. The airline was downsizing and he became a helicopter pilot. He was very good. He did search and rescue in the rocky mountains. His helicopter crashed when he was trying to rescue someone. I think he died a hero.

I do not know all of the details around these other crashes, but I cannot instantly fault the pilots that put their lives at risk every day to try to save lives. They fly into crazy locations to do pickups and drop offs. The last thing they want to do is get themselves killed too. I'm glad we have people willing to do that.

On a side note, if the pilots really have no clue what they are doing, they shouldn't be flying helicopters.

[SeekingJana]

The pilots and crew of Life Flights whom I have known were extremely competent and experienced. What sometimes happens is that in situations where weather is iffy, they will make the decision to fly because a life is hanging in the balance, and an ambulance wouldn't get there in time. This is especially true with preemies born in a rural regional hospital without a NICU or infants born with defects needing immediate surgical intervention.
I have known of situations when the crews had to turn back because of wind, heavy fog or other inclement conditions. Usually they are traveling around 50 miles each way, sometimes 100 miles. Under that distance, ambulances are usually still the transport method of choice. The exception being urban hospital to hospital transfer.

BTW, the neatest alternative to the helicopters that I have seen are, believe it or not, are emergency transport buses. They are equipped to do surgery while in transport, hence the size. They can travel at speeds comparable to ambulance transport. It is possible that in some multiple patient emergency they could transport several people at once, whereas ambulances and helicopters are more limited space wise. I hope the concept is used more often so a surgical team can be right there the entire time, and not be using just the "scoop and run" usual method of emergency transport.

It breaks my heart to know that we are losing so many good flight nurses, doctors and pilots, and in some cases, very sick patients. It seems so totally unfair.

[ljwf22]

I wonder if it's more of an equipment problem. Hospitals are trying desperately to save money (just like everyone else) so a new helicopter would probably be at the bottom of the list. When two major hospitals near me consolidated their flights, they sold the newer helicopter!

[Searching101]

This is enough to make a person petrified to ever get on a medical helicopter?! Stay safe everyone!