Posted on 11/29/2020 10:51:15 AM PST by ransomnote
DENVER – United States Attorney Jason R. Dunn announced that Air Methods Corporation has agreed to pay $825,000 to settle a civil case alleging that the company violated Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) regulations by operating an emergency-services helicopter with severely corroded pitot tubes.
Pitot tubes are components of the pressure measurement system used to determine airspeed. If a pitot tube is not functioning properly, it can cause the airspeed reflected on a helicopter’s instruments to vary significantly from the actual airspeed, cause the helicopter’s auto-pilot to disengage, and present serious safety concerns.
Air Methods, headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado, is the country’s largest air medical transport services provider. Air Methods provides emergency transportation to trauma victims, and other patients requiring urgent transfers between medical facilities on its fleet of more than 450 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
Air Methods’ aviation operations are regulated by the FAA, which, as part of its mission to ensure safety, routinely inspects aircraft within its jurisdiction.
The United States contends that on November 4, 2014, an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector inspected an Air Methods helicopter in Tampa, Florida. During that inspection, the safety inspector noticed that the helicopter’s pitot tubes were severely corroded and crumbling to the touch. The inspector informed Air Methods and took photographs to document the corrosion.
When Air Methods showed the photographs to the manufacturer of the helicopter, an employee of the manufacturer responded that the parts were “obviously” outside the scope of what would be considered serviceable to keep a pitot tube in service and recommended replacing the part(s) “as soon as possible.” Internally, Air Methods’ employees agreed that severely corroded pitot tubes “are way beyond acceptable” and “indicative that our crews are not paying attention.” Even so, Air Methods continued to operate the helicopter with severely corroded pitot tubes for several more days before replacing the parts.
On November 4, 2019, the United States filed a civil action, United States v. Air Methods Corp., 19-cv-03130-RM-NRN (D. Colo.), seeking to recover civil penalties from Air Methods. The United States contended that, by operating an air-ambulance helicopter with severely corroded pitot tubes, Air Methods violated FAA “airworthiness” regulations, which require aircraft to be in a condition for safe operation.
Air Methods has now agreed to pay $825,000 to settle the lawsuit.
“When an FAA safety inspector informs an air-ambulance company about a potential safety issue, the company needs to address it immediately,” said U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn. “The consequences of not working cooperatively with the FAA to minimize safety risks can be disastrous for the crew and for those being transported while seriously ill or injured. This settlement reflects how seriously we take any regulatory violations that could create such unnecessary risks.”
The claims against Air Methods are allegations, and in agreeing to settle this matter, Air Methods did not admit to any liability.
This case was being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ian Kellogg and Andrea Wang in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.
Was that wrong?
Birgenair Flight 301 was a flight chartered by Turkish-managed Birgenair partner Alas Nacionales from Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic to Frankfurt, Germany, via Gander, Canada, and Berlin, Germany. On 6 February 1996, the 757-200 operating the route crashed shortly after take-off from Puerto Plata's Gregorio Luperón International Airport.[1][2] All 189 people on board died. The cause was pilot error after receiving incorrect airspeed information from one of the pitot tubes, which investigators believe was blocked by a wasp nest built inside it. The aircraft had been sitting unused for 20 days, and without pitot tube covers in place for the preceding 2 days before the crash.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgenair_Flight_301
“crumbling to the touch”
The company “earned” the “fine.”
There was another incident where a mechanic placed a piece of tape over the pitot tube during a maintenance procedure. This was correct protocol, but he failed to remove the tape. It was again pilot error that caused the crash because there was conflicting data coming from the plugged and unplugged tube.
recommended replacing the part(s) “as soon as possible.”
How would one interpret this? Parts will be there in a week? Didn’t say to ground the airplane.
I would expect a certificate action against any pilot who flew an obviously unairworthy aicraft.
I suppose it depends on the aircraft and pilot as to how dangerous it is to fly with a jacked up pitot tube. We took off our dirt strip in AZ to come back to SoCal and at about 100 feet we went through a swarm of bugs and I’ll be damned if one didn’t fly straight into the pitot tube. We flew 2 hours home with No Airspeed in my 172. It wasn’t that tough and we landed no problem.
My wife and I are aviation enthusiasts and have lived on a small aiport with our airplanes for the last 25 years. In general rotorcraft will always be more dangerous than fixed wing aircraft. According to the NTSB they are only a little more dangerous, but it takes some real accounting gymnastics to get there. The truth is that you would be much safer sitting behind a biker dude on a cross country trip to Sturgis than taking a two or even four seat helecopter on the same trip.
We had a rotorcraft go down on the opposite side of the feild from us a few years back. Unlike the myth that they just gently autorotate to the ground when they have a problem. This one went straight in and there was virtually nothing left. It was a very ugly scene. Fortunately most the people who live here are veterans and had previous expeience with ugly scenes.
“Was that wrong?”
Was what wrong?
Reminds me of the case where the mechanics closed to a visual degree but didn’t latch the engine cowlings on a jet. Jet takes off, cowlings rip off, damaging one engine fuel line and starting a fire. Landed OK, fortunately.
Did these ‘pilots’ have a **death wish**?
I’ll go out on a limb here and guess none of the aircrews are ex- dot mil types.
Always annoying when some part of your panel becomes inoperative. Typically it is the vacuum pump that goes out, or you are get inaccurate readings because of either a plugged static port or leak in the system. But something got stuck into our pitot system one time and screwed up our airspeed indicator. We reamed it and the tube to it out with a piece of stiff plastic filament and were not able to determine for sure what it was... probably a bee or bug like you had.
We have a Cherokee, several hang gliders and a homebuilt ultralight airplane. Only the Piper Cherokee has an airspeed indicator. These days with even every phone having GPS you can figure out about how fast you are going even if your entire panel has gone dead.
Expensive! It was 30 years old. Never a problem in any air worthiness directive.
I can see helicopter and seaplane (seat of the pants) pilots not being too concerned but I can't imagine a fixed wing IFR plane operating with a compromised system.
Considering that these thieves are billing $40K for a ride on a helicopter around here, you would THINK that they could scrape up a few bucks for routine maintenance.
Something about this story would seem to be off base. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Pitot tube (outside of some homemade ones) that aren’t made of stainless steel. Now having them covered over or fill up with something is another story.
Try losing your altimeter and VSI in IMC. No hand held anything calms your nerves.
I can fly my plane safely with NO Instruments or Gauges in VFR, and have done it with just my Yoke mounted GPS twice. My Instructor and I actually shot an ILS approach with it one day when the VOR’s quit on Approach!!, we had glideslope but no course deviation. Fortunately I finally fixed everything by putting in a whole new Garmin Package and eliminated the pump.
leftist fascism.
Indeed,my daughter was an advanced certificate flight nurse who worked for AirMethods and MedTrans. She bailed on both companies over safety concerns and Medicare/Medicaid mill business model.
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