Sep 26, 2008 4:49 pm US/Eastern
Chopper Safety Top Priority For Local Pilots
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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A spate of helicopter crashes across the U.S. has state police in Maryland asking how the skies above can be made safer.
CBS
A spate of helicopter crashes across the U.S. has state police in Maryland asking how the skies above can be made safer.
Mike Schuh reports they are now taking action on those thoughts.
Fifteen people have died in medical evacuation choppers across the country this year alone.
Last year, two news choppers collided in Arizona killing all four aboard.
Here in Maryland, some of the most crowded skies are becoming even more so.
"I have been flying in the Baltimore area for about the last 18 years. And in the last five or six, the number of helicopters in the area has more than doubled," said
Captain Mike Perry,
WJZ-13 pilot.
At any given time, state, county and local police have choppers up. So do the military and Homeland Security.
There are also state and commercial Medevac choppers as well as those used by the news, including our own
Sky Eye Chopper 13.
These choppers work so close to each other that air controllers can't keep them apart. It's the pilots responsibility.
Where state police choppers go, others usually follow, and the air can become crowded.
"You can't rehearse a particular incident. Obviously so, when we're out there with other police agency in a confined space and we have the news helicopter flying above us, we have to be able to communicate with one another to ensure safety and keep a safe distance apart from one another," said Major A.J. McAndrew, Maryland State Police Aviation.
So 42 groups, who fly or manage the choppers in the Baltimore and D.C. area, got a voluntary refresher course on how to work safely together.
The last Medevac crash happened in Indiana at the end of last month. Three people were killed.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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