NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
Office of Aviation Safety
Washington, D.C. 20594
September 16, 2019
Attachment 4 – Accident Nurse Letter to Human Resources

OPERATIONAL FACTORS/HUMAN PERFORMANCE
CEN19FA072

Attachment 4

CEN19FA072

 12/14/2018

Mail- ~survivalflightinc.com

IPer conversation on 12/11!18
Rachel Cunningham
Thu 12/13/2018 8:20 PM

To: Don Gregory ~survivalflightinc.com>;
Cc:Amanda Wolfe <-@survivalflightinc.com>;

Don;
I apologize this took me a few days to get to you. I was able to get most things obtained to email to you about
statements, etc. There are still multiple issues not in this email that I have not been able to obtain from someone
out of town. Id be more than happy to get that to you in a week or two when they're back in Ohio. Also.
- w r o t e roughly two pages of our concerns when he was in town with both bases for our core camps.
Here is some of the things we've discussed over the phone:
Offensive treatment and derogatory remarks concerning female coworkers:
during a PR in front of several firemen made a comment about imagining what is underneath
This nurse's husband is good friends with one of the firemen and they were very upset about

-Another nurse stated when the base fust started .made multiple comments around individuals regarding what
of underwear she wears under her flight suit. This was back in June/July 2018 .
• made a comment in front of Jackson Fire Department about an auto pulse used for continuous CPR. He made
the comment if the patient had big boobs how he would throw one up and the other down and explained how he
would grab them, etc. Then made a comment about the nurse's breasts and continued to make little remarks about
breasts in general. Several of the Jackson medics made a later stated to that nurse how uncomfortable and
unprofessional that was .
~

• at the base made a comment to the medic on shift about how him and that nurse on shift would be unable to be
intimate at base and has made remarks about cuddling.
Additionally, there are several instances where.has an issue with the off going crew and the way they function
with their patient care. He will use shift debrief to raise his voice, and yell at staff. He will spend easily 1-2 hours
demeaning and scolding staff that have nothing to do with the previous staff he had issues with. This creates
tension between crew members and negativity among the base. This has happened to nearly every single crew
member at some point. The patient care we provide is the highest quality possible and we do our very best. It is
incredibly frustrating to hear from our pilot about non-emergent details when they are not our top priority in
patient treatment.
-One instance included-discussing the previous crew and how they "rammed" the foot of the patient into the
vent of the aircraft while loading, and they did it so hard the foot "flipped backwards" and over the glass intolap. And how he has already "written up" this particular crew member before about doing it. While this was none
of my personal business because I was not on that flight and am not a manager, I spoke to the crew that was on
shift about it because I was concerned about rumors starting. The crew discussed the situation with me, the
patient's foot did hit the vent, but was strapped to the litter So there was no physical way it could have come over
the glass, nor did it bend backward. At the time loading the patient quickly was the concern and though we do not
want to ever bump someone's foot or cause any discomfort, when they are critical and time is of the essence their
foot comfort is not my main concern. I do not tell this story because of the exaggerations, but because of my
concern about starting rumors and creating animosity amongst the staff. He is constantly "writing up" crew
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members for every detail but has no idea about what we are doing to save lives. The details about not bumping
someone's foot while loading are important, but they should not be discussed negatively with other staff members
and then by yelling at the crew, this does not promote learning or foster a positive environment.
-Another example was recently when a crew decided to hot load a simple patient on a flight that.was not even
on. The nurse on the flight said the patient was simple and already packaged to load. Upon entering the hospital
(that had previously received hot load training) they discussed with the staff if they were comfortable with it and
all agreed they were. The EMS coordinator then entered the room and expressed some concern so the nurse offered
to shut down if the hospital wanted and the decision was made to proceed with hot loading. The nurse apologized
for not confirming the load situation before
landing on radio, and assured the coordinator that in the future we would be sure to always confmn. The situation
was handled and there were no further issues. The next day the nurse was told by multiple crew members that
when .arrived at base that night he was furious and proceeded.!2,yell and degrade the previous crew to the new
crew. This nurse has personally had multiple conversations with ~bout if there are ever any issues with her to
discuss them with her personally and if the manager needs involved than to include her too because we are
professionals and should not be negatively discussing our coworkers .
• and hisJl.\i,ht crew were stuck at Bolton field due to low clouds, heavy rain and lightning. They received a call
for a flight.. stated they were taking it and "lets go". The medic and nurse expressed concern that it was
lightening and pouring rain and it showed poor conditions on the iPad. The flight was denied at that time. ~as
angry and when they got back to base, he sat down both crew members together and proceeded to yell at them and
lecture them about taking flights if the
wants to . • got into the medic's face and continued to yell. At this
time, I was called and could over hear~elling in the background. The medic locked himself in his room to
avoid the progressing heated situation. I came on shift the following day and . . .ent on an hour + rant about that
medic walking away from him during that heated discussion. • stated, "If he ever walks away from me while I
am talking to him. I will personally grab and snatch him up". I explained to .that is not how he handles things
and we do not put our hands on anyone no matter how upset we may be and to call our base manager if its that big
of an issue. • proceeded to state that he was angry and would have no hesitation to get physical with this
individual.

.2llot

There are many other instances of this and we will be happy to provide them if you feel it is necessary. The crew
members are all frustrated with constantly hearing about how many things we do wrong with our patient care. We
do not talk about each other and the pilots should not either, learning instances should be completed in debriefs
with the crew that was involved. If the situation is bigger than that particular crew than it should be brought to our
manager and she can address it in an appropriate environment. Degrading team members, starting rumors, and the
pilot lecturing the crew is not our culture.
Un-Professionalism:
-We had a meeting at Logan Elm school for a mock drill we had scheduled for Oct. 12th. This meeting consisted of
a sheriff, a few of the teachers including the drama instructor, a handful of students and a few SF crew. During this
meeting.would constantly interrupt and go on a rant on what he was going to do as the pilot, although he was
not flyin'g'Tor this Mock Drill. He constantly would cuss and make inappropriate comments. The students looked
uncomfortable and several of them left. The one teacher asked me who the "cowboy" was and his name and didn't
seem pleased with how he handled himself.
-During PRevents .does nearly all of the talking, not allowing staff to inteiject. He makes excessive statements
to fire departments about landing zones and only needing "40x40" or smaller landing area and he will "put a stamp
on it." He states that his other pilots may not able to make these landings, but if he is on shift he will. Though we
have amazing pilots that can make fantastic landings we should not be leading with this, if there is a safer landing
zone and better place than the tight unsafe area that should be encouraged. Additionally, when discussing weather,
he often states "I have been flying in Ohio my whole life, my other pilots won't necessarily fly in inclemental
weather or the lowest allowable ceilings, but I am comfortable with it because I know the area." This does not
make us look good. As you well know many helicopter crashes are due to someone being too comfortable. He is
simply boosting his own self-esteem and at the same time demeaning his pilots. We are a team. We have our
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minimums and we fly them with safety as our top priority. There is no need to boast, we demonstrate this through
our work and the flights
we take. Many of the rumors and negative comments about our company come from this mentality and PRevents
that this has been said at.
-If you were to go around and ask many of these fire departments where us flying in unsafe weather comes from
you will always hear the term "cowboy". I have worked endlessly PRing to get that rumor out but it is constantly
being used and asked everywhere I go.
Safety Concerns:
-One medic's very first flight at 13 was with. as the pilot. They were joking around and flying back from aPR.
At this time. yelled bird and dropped the helicopter several feet or so down as a joke and scared this medic
horribly. He also did this another shift with a nurse who was a 3rd rider training for base 14. This took place
shortly after SF 13 opened.
-There are multiple flights where. asks the crew in the back to take his Ipad and tell him about the weather and
where to go to get around it. One shift he had two crew members in the pilot's room for over an hour and a half to
teach us about weather and how to read weather on his ipad and how to switch back and forth between two
programs he has. He has attempted to "teach" many crew members about how to read weather so they can help
navigate .
• was told we were not to mount the NVG's on the medic's hehnet..old myself and many others for the past
several months he disagreed with that we were to mount our NVGs when flying with him. And the crew did so on
his request up until the mount was removed all together. •on occasion will go on rants how stupid it is and
wishes he could fmd a mount on his own for us to use.
-Early one morning a call came in from north in SF 13 area. SF 13 had declined the flight because of!ow ceilings
and bad weather. The nurse expressed concern that that weather was bad, but.got the ipad out and showed the
nurse the path they would take to get to the hospital which consisted of flying an extra nearly 20 minutes around
weather and it would be a tight squeeze to get the patient back to their destination. Bu.assured they could do it
if they hurried. During the flight visibility became increasingly worse. The nurse expressed concern three times but
we continued 'just a little further" until all visibility was lost and we aborted. All visibility was lost for
approximately 20 seconds. After aborting the hospital that had been waiting on us then had to contact and arrange
ground transport. This patient was a time sensitive patient that was now delayed transport ahnost 40 minutes
because of our attempt to make it in bad weather.
-There are many other instances of-accepting flights that SF13 has declined because of weather. It is understood
that sometimes we are capable of getting out because the weather is not over us. But most of them conclude in us
aborting after trying because the destination has bad weather. By doing this not only are we putting ourselves in
risky situations but we are delaying care of the patient.
-All of SF13 and SF14, each individual have multiple stories of unsafe flights with.nd getting yelled at or
talked to when you're unable to make a flight. I personally have had one flight down to a scene flight.
some
reason could not use his NVGs and requested the medic use his and talk him through the entire flight to about what
he could see. Flying to this location it was pitch black, no lights and a ton ofhlgh terrain. The medic was nervous
because he could only see out his side, a small portion of my window on the nurse's side and a small area straight
in front of him. I was looking out the window and could only see black and a ton of clouds and precipitation. It
takes a lot for me to get to that level of concern and feeling anxious. Once we got back to base I noticed my
husband during that flight sent me multiple text messages asking me why we were flying because he knew the
weather down there was not good.

aor

-At SF13 a medic stated multiple times.ould take off when he wasn't rea. and didn't have his seat-belt on.
This person states he would make comments about him being unbuckled but
would never respond.
Here is a situation I was recently in this past week:
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I heard. from the pilot's room say we had a flight. From the doorway I noticed a large area of gray and blue on
his screen. When I asked him about weather down in Holzer Jackson, he stated it was all clear and let's get going.
Holzer Jackson is one of the areas where weather can be good or bad and it's hard to predict at times. Flying down
that way~-P and myself noted quite a bit of snow on the ground with heavy, thick snow
currently falling . •sked - i f she could use her NVG's to look at 12 o'clock and tell him what she sees. He
was unable to wear his NVGs due to the heavy snow fall, he couldn't see through it. She said weather didn't look
the best but she was still able to see the horizon and enough to continue with no concerns. Several minutes later.
asked me to look out at my 3 o'clock and tell him what I could or could not see. I told him I see lights but they
were starting to get harder to see and ~onfmned the same on her side. Shortly after I mentioned I could no
longer see the towers and-mentioned she was experiencing the same on the left side. This is commonly how
we communicate~ flights with difficult weather, we openly discuss what we see.
Shortly after that -mentioned that the weather became worse at 12 o'clock and she was unable to see and I
agreed. At this time,.asked me several times ifl could get his Ipad and look at the weather in front of us. I told
him no that I believe whatever he states he sees on the Ipad. Not long after that he agreed we needed to abort, he
called and aborted the flight and stated we needed to tum back to base due to weather and visibility. He then
handed the Ipad behind his head and asked me to look at it and tell him wha~oing back. I mentioned the
only direction we could go is north as the huge cell was west~ east of us. ~d I noted he was flying west,
communications at this time called us on the radio and asked.to confmn we were heading back to base. He said
yes and we questioned him because it appeared, he was still trying to fmd a way to get south down to Holzer
Medical Center. -mentioned landing at the airport that was right in site to wait for some of the weather to
pass. • agreed that sounded good and we hovered down the runway then all of a sudden, he lifted again. •then
called Comms multiple times and asking about weather in the directions we were flying to get us back to Grove
City. At one point he told us we were flying up at 3500 ft to try to get out of the weather we were surrounded by.
Upon gettin~ to base,-and myself sat with.in the living room to debrief He asked us if there were
any issues. - a n d I stated other than the weather getting extremely bad, and hitting IFR it went well. The three
of us discussed the flight calmly and all agreed there were no issues. I asked . f he wanted us to sign the book
because it was late and I needed to get some sleep. He acted slightly frustrated and stated he will fill it later and for
us to just sign the book in the AM.
The next day I received a phone call from our base manager,
the flight went. I told her
the
as above and was pretty upset to hear that
told
could have made that flight
and
and got me worked up during that flight. This is completely untrue. That morning
I told
discuss exactly what hiliened during the flight. When we went to sign the
that morning,
stated no issues; which
and I refuse to sign because we had discussed the
issues. Additionally, we have a form that the pilots fill out when we tum down or abort a flight. On this paper he
wrote "VFR reports enroute, hit snow at ross co line, low hanging, set, unable to fmd hole, abort." Between his
debriefmg sheet, this sheet and his word, they're each different.
This is a recurrent issue with. He will tell us everything was great and he agreed we couldn't make that flight
then goes behind our back and throws the crew under the bus. He manipulates our words and often makes up his
own story to make himself look better. I shouldn't have to stress over my pilot and how he is going to react in front
of me, others or behind our back. Let alone constantly attempt a flight
that is unsafe, aborted and put myself and the crew at risk. Our base is getting to the point where I am concerned
things are going to blow up.
I do the schedule for our base and when there are openings, I ask people at 13 if they'd like to pick up the entire
shift or half of it. The first thing out of their mouth is, "Who is the pilot"? If my answer is.hey will not fill in
here at 14. As a group we do not trust him, we do not feel fully safe with him and we're constantly concerned
we're going to get yelled at or lectured over something we did or said or another crew did. We have no issues with
any other pilots, we trust them, and feel very comfortable with them. If we abort a flight due to weather, we never
get questioned or talked to by the piW>r management, we debrief and handle things professionally. We are a team.
When we have to abort a flight with. we get talked to by management, get questioned, and we are always made
to look like we are just lazy and don't want to do it.
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We have decided to try not to use names as.as retaliated in the past towards staff who have went to higher ups
and confronted him personally. He frequently "writes people up" or treats them unjustly if he doesn't like them.
Several staff have attempted to talk to him personally, we care about him and appreciate all of the hard work that
he has put into our base. But his leadership qualities including the unprofessionalism, offensiveness to female
coworkers, divisive undermining of the team, safety concerns, and manipulation are truly concerning to our base.
Most of the base was included in writing this email. It is truly becoming a toxic environment working with him and
we need help to fix it. We have expressed this concern to many people and feel we are not being heard. Feel free to
reach out to anyone at our base and they will confirm this. We recently just found out about needing to record these
issues in the debrieflog, as a new base we are still learning. In the future these accounts will be included in any
debrief. But we need help now.
Per our phone conversation I appreciate you keeping me in the loop about how this will be taken care of on a
professional matter and I look forward to hearing from you. Myself as well as SF13 and SF14 appreciate you taking
the time to hear our concerns and taking them seriously. If you have any questions or further needs feel free to
reach out any time.
Thank you,
Rachel Cunningham, RN
PR Coordinator, Flight Nurse
Survival Flight, Base 14
Grove City, Ohio

www.survivalflightinc.com

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