Remembering Those Who Cared - Med Flight

As the bodies of Dr. Darren Bean, nurse Mark Coyne, and pilot Steve Lipper are returned to Madison, I am struck by how wrong it is that people who care so much die while they are helping others.  The city of La Crosse sent them back to Madison with deserved recognition. 1,000 turn out for memorial convoy:

More than 1,000 community members watched today as La Crosse County firefighters and emergency medical personnel joined by the Madison Fire Department and Wisconsin State Patrol escorted the hearses of the three victims of a Saturday medical helicopter crash as a tribute to those who lost their lives,  photo by Dick Riniker, La Crosse Tribune

On Monday when I read the lede to Dave Wahlberg's article in the Wisconsin State Journal, Med Flight Tragedy,

More than 75 doctors, nurses, pilots and patients have died in medical helicopter crashes across the country in the past decade as the workers risk their lives to transport patients in need of medical care.

I don't know the period of time that covers, but whether it is ten years or twenty years, It is too many deaths.

I do not know that an investigation can accomplish anything. Perhaps the standards and the codes regulating these flights are as stringent as is reasonably possible. But here is one instance where an investigation, a study, of all of the crashes, not just this one, could be fruitful.

Wahlberg and Patricia Simms reported on Tuesday that,

• The Med Flight helicopter that crashed into a wooded hillside near La Crosse on Saturday night, killing its crew of three, did not have night-vision goggles and terrain warning technology as recommended.

• "The fact that they did not have this equipment did not compromise their ability to perform these missions safely," said Aaron Todd, chief executive officer of Denver-based Air Methods.

• Night-vision goggles could have helped pilots take action in 13 of the 55 medical helicopter crashes from 2002 to 2005, the NTSB said. Terrain warning systems, which can alert pilots 25 seconds before an impact, could have helped prevent 17 of the 55 crashes, the agency said.

Three wonderful men who were devoted to assisting others in the most critical moments cannot be returned.  We can make every effort to ensure that they and the 75 others who have died are not joined by other caregivers and patients.

Everyone deserves some answers.

Comments

[Tim M.]

You're losing it, Paul. A decade (see the sentence which preceeds your question about what period of time is involved) is generally regarded as ten years.

Nice tribute, though. What a loss.

[Jess Wundrun]

The equipment cost $100,000 and there is a backlog due to military helicopters waiting to get it installed on their helicopters.

I find several things wrong in that sentence.