Via CNN, yet another in a long list of ways the Bush Administration and its enablers have put people at home at risk:
One technology that veteran EMS pilots say could improve their safety is the use of night-vision goggles (NVG). Developed for use in the military, the goggles can improve visibility for pilots flying in darkness. The NTSB has encouraged NVG use since 2006. It costs about $60,000 to train two pilots and retrofit an aircraft cockpit with night-vision technology.
But because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a shortage of the goggles. In the United States, the military gets first access to the goggles, and only a couple of companies manufacture the complex, and classified, equipment.
How important is this? Let's go to the pilots themselves, who have some pretty strong opinions on the matter.
"I feel night-vision goggles have improved the safety in our program more than any other thing I have seen in 17 years of EMS flying."
"Landing in unimproved areas at night without NVGs is idiotic!"
"The FAA many times seems to hinder rather than enhance safety with some of their rules made by out-of-touch desk jockeys."
"... I left my last job because they didn't have a NVG program..."
This seems like a no-brainer to me. Medical aircraft don't always have the luxury of following predictable flight plans, landing on tarmac, or relying on their instruments to tell them when there's a tree or a power line in their path. If they can't see where they're going, accidents are going to happen--preventable accidents, made all the more tragic because the people at risk are already in grave danger if they're in need of an airlift. These are some of the most vulnerable people in the country, patients in need of immediate critical care and the men and women whose job it is to see that they get there.
For all the noise that Republicans make about supporting first responders and protecting the country, the record is clear: these things aren't nearly as important as the fealty to sunk costs and pride that prevents them from putting an end to the worst US foreign policy blunder of the 21st century.