The safety of our air medical flight crews, patients and EMS and medical partners is the highest priority for Northwest MedStar. Northwest MedStar continues to invest in crew training, enhanced technologies, increased weather reporting and other infrastructure enhancements to mitigate risks – many of which go beyond what is mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). This is part of our ongoing commitment to a safe culture.
A training program, designed to enhance safety by promoting teamwork and effective communication. AMRM teaches problem solving, decision making, interpersonal communication, team building and situational awareness skills - in short, how to recognize the human factor in critical care air transport. Through this ongoing training, the teams learn to maintain optimum performance in an an ever-changing and challenging environment.
NVGs function by amplifying existing light - visible or invisible (starlight, reflected moonlight, distant man-made sources, infrared, etc.) - displaying terrain, obstacles and approaching weather to the pilot and crew. The goggles allow Northwest MedStar's crews to not only see things like trees and telephone poles when making an on-scene landing, but also avoid an area before they can get into trouble. All flight personnel receive eight hours of class time, and the pilots complete an additional five hours of flight training. NVGs are intended only to enhance safety; Northwest MedStar's pilots will never accept a flight that they could not take without the goggles.
The HEMS weather tool, developed by the University Center for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), helps fill in gaps in weather reporting by using computer models to determine the probable ceiling and visibility between Automated Weather Observation Stations (AWOS).
Designed to provide the pilot with increased situational awareness and reduce the possibility of accidents associated with Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), the TAWS system takes aircraft state information from on-board sensors along with flight path intent information from our Flight Management System and combines them with its own internal worldwide terrain database. The resulting unprecedented “look-ahead” capability can provide warnings and alerts well in advance of potential hazards, allowing the pilot ample time to make the necessary maneuvers or data corrections for terrain avoidance. TAWS provides the pilot with hazard advisories, along with real-time dynamic displays of the terrain surrounding the aircraft.
Northwest MedStar has long been an advocate for the utilization of protective helmets and fire-resistant flight gear by our crew members - even though the use of such protection is not mandated by the FAA or the NTSB. Flight suits and gloves are protected by NOMEX, providing thermal protection from flash fire hazards often encountered at accident scenes, along with protection from blood and body fluid-borne pathogens. And helmets have been shown to significantly reduce or altogether prevent head injuries (over 31 percent of all life-threatening injuries occur to the head and face of helicopter occupants, according to the NTSB) in survivable helicopter accidents. This physical protection, coupled with the comfort of knowing they are safer from potential on-site hazards, enables our crews to focus on what’s important: saving lives.