Medical Helicopter Safety Questioned In NTSB Hearings

Washington (dbTechno) – The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is holding hearings this week to look into the safety of medical helicopters.

Aviation experts are coming together to try and figure out how to improve the safety of these medical helicopters.

These helicopters are basically ambulances, only in the air.  They are able to get on a scene quickly and get people to a hospital far faster than through a regular ambulance.

The issue though is that the safety of these medical helicopters is now being questioned.

Between December 2007 and October 2008, there were a total of 9 crashes involving these medical helicopters.

This included 35 deaths, with six of them being actual patients.

Aviation experts believe that one of the bigger issues may be due to the fact that many of these crashes took place at night.

One of the proposed solutions is to add night-vision equipment to the helicopters.

This is just one suggestion, with more to come in the four-day hearings.

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