MedFlight has issued the following statement regarding the Survival Flight helicopter accident on Jan. 29 in Vinton County, Ohio.
According to Tom Allenstein, MedFlight’s president and CEO, “Yesterday, a tragic accident occurred involving our air medical colleagues at Survival Flight. Our hearts and our prayers go out to the team members who lost their lives as well as their families and friends. As it relates to MedFlight, we received a request to transport a patient from the Holzer-Meigs Emergency Room in Pomeroy at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 29. The assigned team’s pilot, working with the Operational Control Center at Metro Aviation, Inc., our aviation operator, determined that weather conditions at the time of request were below our program’s weather minimums. Each helicopter ambulance service has their own protocols for making decisions about whether it is appropriate to fly under given conditions. The results of the NTSB investigation is pending as it relates to the cause of this accident.”
Regarding this incident, please do not contact MedFlight’s communication center.
MedFlight is a not-for-profit, CAMTS-accredited air and ground critical care transportation company formed in 1995. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, MedFlight has nine helicopter bases and three Mobile ICU bases statewide.
What an appalling and insensitive press release! This is information for the investigation team and not fodder for arm-chair quarterbacks trying to second-guess what occurred.
I don’t see a single thing inflammatory about this company’s statement. What is inflammatory is the standing policy of Survival Flight to ask hospitals and their staff to call them when others turn down flights for weather, as they have lower weather minimums. This company belongs in the 80’s, as do others. These companies should not be given a second chance. They clearly lack safety culture, which begins at the top. The HAA industry in the United States severely lacks proper aviation oversight, equipment, training, and pilot hiring standards. Gambling with the lives of the public in order to make a profit has no place in aviation.