For PHI, safety never ceases to be essential. Their culture is built on and around it.

In January of 2006, the National Transportation Safety Board, (NTSB), reviewed seven weather-related fatal air ambulance accidents, both fixed-wing and rotor aircraft. From that meeting, four recommendations were submitted to the FAA to aid in the alleviation of risks that could lead to accidents. The recommendations essentially state that air operators should:  1) Incorporate the use of Night Vision Goggles. 2)  Qualify for the Part 135 Regulation which is a commercial on-demand charter that applies to commuter and charter air operators. 3) Incorporate the use of terrain avoidance equipment. 4) Have trained weather personnel in their dispatch centers.

A month after the NTSB meeting, PHI experienced a weather-related accident in Indiana, in a Bell 206 L3 helicopter. Fortunately, no one was killed. The accident did however become the catalyst that would inspire PHI to surpass the challenge of the NTSB’s fourth recommendation and begin work on creating the industry’s leading Enhanced Operations Communications Center, (EOC). 

The object of the EOC is to help pilots make better informed weather decisions when launching or executing a flight.

PHI did such a first-rate job of building their EOC from scratch that the FAA sent a representative to their Phoenix location to observe the center which today monitors 74 helicopter bases across the nation. 

From constructing a comprehensive risk matrix to equipping themselves with state-of-the-art technology, PHI did it right the first time when they created their EOC. The risk matrix is an interactive chart that is completed daily by duty pilots and submitted to the EOC. The matrix is broken down into two sections, static risk and dynamic risk. Static risk includes items such as the amount of time a new pilot has on the job, the total number of hours a pilot may have in the air, familiarity with certain equipment, etc. Dynamic risks are the ever changing weather scenarios that come and go, terrain issues, the airspace a pilot may have to fly in, etc.

The basis of the matrix is a green, yellow, red standard. Green means the pilot is free to launch a flight. Yellow indicates that pilots must communicate with the EOC and make an informed decision to launch. Red indicates that pilots may not fly without special permission from the directors of PHI – in most cases flights are suspended until weather conditions improve.

After studying the risk matrix, the FAA put a circular out to the industry saying it was the standard they were looking for. Next, the FAA issued Operational Specs Alpha 008, a mandated regulation for enhanced operational control over the launching and flying of aircraft.

“We are really proud to be at the forefront of such an important and cutting edge solution for the industry,” says JD Wilder, architect and manager of PHI’s EOC.

Though not included as a requirement in the mandate, PHI decided that its trained weather personnel would need one additional qualification. They must be pilots too.

 “Getting the buy-in from our pilots was key to making the EOC a success,” says Wilder. “We feel it is vital that pilots work on both ends of the radio because they share so much experience and knowledge. In this way, decision making, as it relates to weather, becomes a well rounded process where risk mitigation is concerned. It’s a bit like flying with a co-pilot. The pilot on the ground is fully focused on weather screens and other available technology that provide real time reporting of weather conditions while the other is focused on flying the aircraft. This is a very good scenario,” says Wilder.

At first the new department functioned only at night. It soon became a 24/7 operation manned with six pilots who together have more than one hundred thousand hours of flight experience.

“When the go decision is made, the aircraft becomes the responsibility of the EOC and is monitored through Outerlink tracking and GPS satellite uplink tracking in real time anywhere in the US and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico,” says Wilder. “An aircraft can be monitored down to the street it is hovering over and is tracked all the way to its destination.”

Weather radar, digital maps, overlays and other resources enable pilots to see conditions like thunder storms or flight path changes in real time. These resources have now been added to every base PHI services. All base computers are linked so communication is instant. The EOC has direct contact to every pilot on the ground or in the air through the system.

In addition, EOC dispatchers stay fifteen minutes ahead of an aircraft in flight by calling the AWOS/ASOS system to know in real time what the weather is in a given region. In this way they can confirm weather conditions by matching multiple reports.

Wilder says that, part and parcel to establishing the center, was the objective not to effect response times negatively or to make the pilots feel that the EOC was a spy center. 

“Pilots in the aircraft make the decision to launch based on our risk matrix, but the entire team is capable of cancelling a flight,” says Wilder. “The medical crew and the pilot on the ground have to be equally as comfortable as the pilot in the aircraft or they don’t fly.”

They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But how is prevention measured against its upfront cost? 

First, while it is clear that the significant upfront cost of the EOC does not pay cash returns, the company has not had a major weather related incident since the program started nearly three years ago. In other words, no person or aircraft has been injured or damaged due to a weather related incident. 

When one considers what might have been, had the EOC existed before the Indiana accident, the return might be thought of as the well being of an entire flight crew and the cost of a helicopter which was lost. Most important of course are the lives of crew members and patients. So the cost/benefit analysis is immeasurable largely because what it protects and maintains is priceless.

What would likely have happened in Indiana is the duty pilot would have consulted with the EOC using the risk matrix. The risk matrix would have shown the situation as green, yellow or red. Decisions would have followed that could have stopped the flight before it started. Hind sight isn’t exactly 20/20 here but it is clear that since its creation, the EOC has on many occasions, revealed conditions that were highly favorable for an accident, resulting in turning down or aborting flights.

At the 2007 Air Medical Transport Conference, AMTC, in Orland, Florida, PHI received the first ever American Eurocopter Vision Zero Aviation Safety Award which recognizes one company in the air medical industry embodying the goal of flight safety and zero accidents of consequence. President and CEO of American Eurocopter, Marc Paganini, said of PHI’s EOC System, “This is a significant step forward in safety for the air medical community.”