FAA issues final rule to improve HEMS safety
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published its long-awaited final rule covering helicopter air ambulance, commercial helicopter and Part 91 (general) helicopter operations. The final rule mandates new operational procedures and additional equipment requirements for helicopter air ambulance operations, with the aim of addressing an increase in fatal helicopter air ambulance accidents, said the FAA.
On 21 February 2014, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published its long-awaited final rule covering helicopter air ambulance, commercial helicopter and Part 91 (general) helicopter operations. The final rule mandates new operational procedures and additional equipment requirements for helicopter air ambulance operations, with the aim of addressing an increase in fatal helicopter air ambulance accidents, said the FAA. Commercial helicopter operations will also be made safer thanks to revised requirements for equipment, pilot testing, and alternate airports.
The FAA explained: “[The final rule] increases weather minimums for all general aviation helicopter operations. Many of these requirements address National Transportation Safety Board safety recommendations, and are already found in FAA guidance. [The] changes are intended to provide certificate holders and pilots with additional tools and procedures that will aid in preventing accidents.”
Key changes include a requirement for all operations with medical personnel onboard to be conducted under Part 135 operating rules – up until now, air ambulance flights only had to be carried out under Part 135 when a patient was onboard, whereas flights with medical personnel but no patient onboard could be carried out under the less restrictive Part 91 rules. New weather minimums and visibility requirements for Part 135 operations are effected, and the final rule also mandates flight planning, preflight risk analyses, and safety briefings for medical personnel. Operators with 10 or more medical helicopters will need to establish operations control centres (OCC) ‘to help with risk management and flight monitoring’, and OCC specialists will be subject to drug and alcohol testing due to the safety-sensitive nature of their role. The FAA said that there are also provisions to encourage instrument flight rules (IFR) operations – for example, all helicopter air ambulance pilots will be required to hold instrument ratings. Pilots will also need to be able to demonstrate that they can manoeuver the aircraft if they encounter inadvertent instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC) and to get out of those conditions safely. They will further be required to identify and document the highest obstacle along their planned route.
Among the equipment to be installed on medical helicopters under the rule are helicopter terrain awareness and warning systems (HTAWS) to warn pilots of obstacles in their flight path, flight data monitoring systems to provide information following an accident, and radio altimeters. All helicopters operated under Part 135 will have to carry additional survival equipment for flights over water.
In terms of weather, alternate airports named in flight plans must have higher weather minimums than previously required, and the final rule brings in new weather minimums affecting Part 91 helicopter operations in Class G airspace.
The FAA has estimated that the requirements of the final rule will cost the US air ambulance industry around $280 million over the next decade, but will garner a benefit of around $480 million over the same period. The single most expensive rule provision is the need for OCCs, which the FAA estimated will cost $77 million over the next 10 years; HTAWS, flight data monitoring systems and radio altimeters come in at a combined cost of $95 million.
Explaining the need for the new measures, the FAA said it ‘is establishing more stringent safety regulations to protect patients, medical personnel, flight crew members, and other passengers onboard helicopter air ambulances’.
The final rule is available here.