BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

Prompted by a recent increase in fatal emergency medical service (EMS) helicopter crashes, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) held four days of hearings on possible safety improvements earlier this month. At the hearings' conclusion, NTSB Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt offered helicopter manufacturers a glimpse of what's to come with five simple words: "This is just the beginning."

Between 1988 and 1997, an average of five EMS helicopters crashed every year. Since 1998, that annual average has more than doubled to 12. Since October 2007, 18 such accidents have occurred - killing 36 pilots, nurses, patients, and health professionals. Last month, Vice Chairman Sumwalt called these statistics "unacceptable." Industry safety expert Vernon Albert declared simply: FAA needs to "get off their butts."

While witnesses called before this month' s hearings agree there is no simple solution, the NTSB is expected to issue recommendations in the very near future. That means helicopter manufacturers (if they haven' t already) must prepare their public affairs and crisis communications teams for more scrutiny from federal regulators, Congress, bloggers, and the news media.

Whether the government mandates greater cloud clearance, advanced avionics, or any number of other safety enhancements, helicopter manufacturers should begin working now to ensure they' re in the room when these measures are decided. Continued debate over safety issues will likely lead to some negative publicity where someone has to take blame. Thus, the industry should ready itself with messages and action that communicate a total commitment to safety. The toy and pet food industries followed this model well when Congress created stricter laws governing their industry standards following massive recalls in 2007 - and did so with great success.

The safety training website recently launched by Bell Helicopter is good start - but it is only a start. The industry needs to be rallying support from hospitals, doctors, patients, nurses, and interest groups like the AAA and MADD that have a stake in seeing the EMS helicopters used as widely as possible. It needs to be seen as a driver of reform, rather than a target of it. Most important, it needs to find ways to shift the narrative from one about the number of lives lost to one about the number of lives saved throughout the operational history of EMS helicopters.