Sky Safety

An aviation company I would possibly be interested would be survival flight. As a paramedic, which is a job that I really love, it would be interesting to me to be able to combine the two fields. As a paramedic, there comes a certain satisfaction with helping people: to see them on their worst days and know you can make a difference.  As a pilot I would not only love the physical act of what I am doing, but knowing that I a bigger aspect of a much more critical patient.  I have worked with companies that I have brought the ambulance to an airport to meet with a plane or helicopter and have seen how critical these patients can be and--had it not been for the air transport--the patient may not have made it.  If I could be a pilot and know that I helped make that difference with something I truly love going.  It would be the combination of the best of both worlds for me.

The description of survival flight is a little different.  The fixed wings tend to be on a more set schedule while helicopter pilots tend to be more of the "on scene" personnel. The primary focus for the pilot, is, of course, the safety of the flight and all on board.  That is also where some of the dangers come in.  Through my paramedic training, the first thing they drill into. Your head over and over and over and over is called "scene safety". That is, if for whatever reasons if the scene is not safe, do not try to help the patient.  If the patient is in a car with live telephone wires over it, touching the car to get the patient out is only going to hurt the paramedic and what good would that do for anyone?  Bearing that in mind from an  aviation standpoint, a pilot may sometimes think of hone important of "helping" the patient before safety of the aircraft.

That presents itself as a safety and liability issue.  These are generally mitigated in by a separation of the aviation and the EMS personnel.  Most Air Ambulance companies are two combines combined.  Survival Flight employs the paramedics and nurses through University of Michigan while the pilots and everything else aviation related are supplied by Pentastar.  This separation tried to help eliminate that sense of “helping” While going through my UMBC training for my Critical Care Paramedic training we discussed the safety features in place for flight transportation.  A rule that Survival Flight used was “The rule of three.”  That is, there were three people who had to agree to the flight.  If a single person said “No” the flight would not take place.  The pilot had to agree, the flight medical staff had to agree and the patient’s primary physician had to agree.  On the aviation standpoint, the person who had given that lecture to my class had told a story of the flight crew going out with the pilot while he prepared his pre-flight check.  The nurse had noticed a small bit of ice on the fence going around the airport hanger.  She brought it to the attention of the pilot.  The pilot had advised the conditions were fine for their flight, but the nurse was still uncomfortable with it, so the flight did not take place and the paitnet would be transported another day.  Safety measures in place like this are something that I would like to look for in a company. 

Every one who has a job has some level of professionalism.  Professionalism sounds like a very astute word, but, really, to be a professional just means to be paid for something.  It implies some sort of training that makes a person qualified to performed—and be paid for—performing a task  One of the ways that professionalism was lacked in this accident was due to the PIC changing the weight of the plane to get it “approved” for takeoff.  That demonstrates a lack of professionalism because it shows the lack of training—or ignorance of that training—to perform the job he was paid to do.

Two things that I would do personally if I were to ever get this job is to just keep the patient in mind.  Safety is important for the patient.  This job would take “scene safety” t a whole new level.  And if all aspects of the flight ae not safe, no help can be brought to the patient and harm may come to the crew.  I would also try to keep a very positive attitude.  When it comes to helping others, a positive attitude goes a long way.  As a pilot, I would want tha patient—and their families—to know that they are in safe hand with me flying the plane.  A positive, confident attitude would help to exude that.