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. 2010 Apr 21:2:45-9.
doi: 10.2147/oaem.s9120. eCollection 2010.

Helicopter emergency medical services accident rates in different international air rescue systems

J Hinkelbein  1 , M Schwalbe  2 , H V Genzwuerker  3
Affiliations

Helicopter emergency medical services accident rates in different international air rescue systems

J Hinkelbein et al. Open Access Emerg Med. .

Abstract

Aim: Each year approximately two to four helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) crashes occur in Germany. The aim of the present study was to compare crash rates and fatal crash rates in Germany to rates in other countries.

Materials and methods: A MEDLINE search from 1970 to 2009 was performed using combinations of the keywords "HEMS", "rescue helicopter", "accident", "accident rate", "crash", and "crash rate". The search was supplemented by additional published data. Data were compared on the basis of 10,000 missions and 100,000 helicopter flying hours. These data were allocated to specific time frames for analyis.

Results: Eleven relevant studies were identified. Five studies (three from Germany, one from the US, one from Australia) analyzing HEMS accidents on the basis of 10,000 missions were identified. Crash rates per 10,000 missions ranged between 0.4 and 3.05 and fatal crash rates between 0.04 and 2.12. In addition, nine studies (six from the US, two from Germany, one from Australia) used 100,000 flying hours as a denominator. Here, crash rates ranged between 1.7 and 13.4 and fatal crash rates between 0.91 and 4.7.

Conclusions: Data and accident rates were inhomogeneous and differed significantly. Data analysis was impeded by publication of mean data, use of different time frames, and differences in HEMS systems.

Keywords: accident analysis; fatal accident rate; fatal crash rate; helicopter emergency medical system; rescue helicopter.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of accident rates per 10,000 missions in analyzed studies.* *Year (x-axis), accident rate per 10,000 missions (y-axis). Due to the scale of the figure, one single data point Low et al; accident rate per 10,000 missions (3,05) is not presented.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of fatal accident rates per 10,000 missions in analyzed studies.* Note: *Year (x-axis), fatal accident rate per 10,000 missions (y-axis). Due to scale of figure, one data point Low et al, fatal accident rate per 10,000 missions (2,12) is not presented.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of accident rates per 100,000 flying hours in analyzed studies.* Note: *Year (x-axis), accident rate per 100,000 flying hours (y-axis).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of fatal accident rates per 100,000 flying hours in analyzed studies.* Note: *Year (x-axis), fatal accident rate per 100,000 flying hours (y-axis).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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