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Gathering up the remains of the Air Angels chopper is part of a process that's become all too common in recent months. The number of patients and crew members killed in EMS helicopter accidents has skyrocketed from just a handful each year back in the 1990s to 29 in 2004 and 35 already this year, according to National Transportation Safety Board figures.
"Health care helicopter delivery services are booming," Joe Schwieterman of DePaul University said. "We have pilots without the same experience, due to the growth of this sector. I think there's more congestion. Flying in urban environments is getting more complicated. All of that leads to a real issue here."
Just the day before the Aurora crash, former NTSB chairman Jim Hall, writing in Aviation Safety and Security Digest, called "EMS helicopters ... among the most dangerous aircraft in the skies today" with "...a fatal accident rate of 6,000 times that of commercial aviation."
Yet Hall claimed the FAA "was content with a do-it-yourself program of oversight."
Others agree.
"The accident that occurred in Aurora was totally avoidable, if you look at the latest technology available," attorney Bob Clifford said. "If the FAA had required it as the NTSB recommended that they do this would never have happened. Four lives would have been saved."
The Terrain Awareness and Warning System, or TAWS, was recommended for all medical helicopters by the NTSB in February 2006. Its audio warning and display of obstacles turning from yellow to red helps pilots avoid fatal collisions. Two and a half years later, the FAA has yet to implement the recommendation.
Transmission towers like the one now being dismantled after this week's crash remain hazards that can only be avoided if pilots see them.
"The FAA is dropping the ball in this area of air safety, and it's got to come to an end," Clifford, the attorney, said.
Right now, the FAA encourages medical helicopter operators to install the hi-tech warning system, but it doesn't require them. The Aurora crash and others like it this year could speed up an approval process that has dragged on while dozens more died. Mandatory installations, insiders believe, won't start until next year at the earliest.