In the end, it is the pilot who made the decision to fly, without the instruments available for flight during foggy weather conditions.
We wouldn't blame a consumer of any products or services for their own demise by using the service.
Agreed .... but here is the thing .... EVERY pilot makes a decision before flying , and if conditions appear unsafe he will simply stay on the ground. We must remember that the pilot does not wish put his own life at risk either.
Having said that , the helicopter flights with the some of the highest accident rates are the
medivac flights ... as a matter of fact they have a hard time even finding pilots to work for them.
Endless hours of sheer boredom and when the alarm bells ring for an emergency rescue it is usually bad weather , or dangerous terrain and it is a tough decision to say the flying ambulance will not come.
Under that pressure the pilot will usually choose to go , and those are state of the art helicopters that can fly on instruments ..... however things still go wrong and they crash killing doctors and nurses and paramedics and if the injured patient was picked up , he perishes too.
And what really peeves me is they never blame the hiker or skier who has gone to some remote mountain , then falls off a cliff or skies into a tree and has broken legs .... noooo .... we never blame those athletic fools for playing a dangerous sport ... we always blame the pilot who tried to rescue them .
Igor Sikorsky (May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972) was the inventor of the rescue helicopter and nothing thrilled him more than when one of his machines was used to save lives , they say he kept a running record of them , a man like him is much more a hero than multi-million dollar sports stars. Or snow boarders who emerge from a cloud of pot smoke and fly off a cliff in the mountains.
