Everyone may share the friendly skies, but whether you are escorting a diplomat, airlifting a patient or keeping an eye on the traffic for a television channel, everyone has a different objective when the rotors begin their beat.
With all those competing interests, communication and co-operation is essential. That is why the Western Pennsylvania Helicopter Safety Summit, a gathering held every four months, was created.
STAT Medevac, a helicopter emergency medical service operator based outside Pittsburgh, hosted the latest event on 21 January, near its home base on Allegheny County airport.
It has been an uneventful winter in the region in terms of dangerous incidents, but between top staffers from several HEMS operators, the Pennsylvania State Police, two US Federal Aviation Administration representatives and electronic news-gathering helicopter pilots from three television channels, there was plenty to say, and all of it highlighted the necessity of co-opera