Aeronautical Decision Making for Air Ambulance Helicopter Pilots: Learning from Past Mistakes

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Aeronautical Decision Making for Air Ambulance Helicopter Pilots: Learning from Past Mistakes

R. J. Adams / J. L. Thompson

The following materials are based upon actual helicopter air ambulance accidents. They focus on the importance of decision making and judgement during all phases of flight. Improving safety is a shared responsibility between hospital administrators, vendors, chief pilots, head nurses, pilots, air medics, dispatchers and physicians. It is to everyone's advantage to establish and support an operational frame of reference that will ensure safety. These accident synopses are the first element of a multi-volume set of training materials designed to significantly reduce the helicopter air ambulance accident rate and to keep it under control thereafter. The accident summaries, risk analyses and lessons learned are taken directly from helicopter air ambulance history. They enhance the basic manual: 'Aeronautical Decision Making for Helicopter Pilots' by providing an insight to the types of decision errors which contributed to accidents in the past. This manual contains introductory and tutorial material necessary for improving basic decision making skills. Some material contained in that manual and not included in this one are: rotorcraft risk assessment; the self-awareness inventory; identifying and reducing stress; and headwork. Reading and understanding the concepts of decision making will improve the pilot's ability to analyze the accident scenarios contained herein. Keywords: Human factors, Human performance, Aviation safety, Aviation training, Pilot error, Judgement, Decision making, Helicopter pilot, Helicopters, Rotorcraft. (sdw)