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Summary

The Office of Inspector General plans to initiate an audit on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) progress in improving Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) safety. We are conducting this review at the request of the Ranking Member of the Aviation Subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The HEMS industry safely transports over 400,000 patients in the United States each year, frequently under challenging conditions. However, since 2008, there have been 39 deaths and 19 injuries from HEMS accidents, and the FAA Modernization Reform Act of 2012 required that FAA take specific actions to reduce the HEMS accident rate. Our audit objectives are to evaluate (1) FAA’s progress in meeting requirements for HEMS operations cited in the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, and (2) whether FAA has implemented other actions to reduce the HEMS accident rate.