As a mountain search-and-rescue volunteer for 44 years, I would like to elaborate on the June 9 fatal helicopter crash that took the lives of State Police Sgt. Andy Tingwall and Megumi Yamamoto, a lost hiker in the mountains above Santa Fe.

We who consistently go out any time day or night, in sometimes the most adverse weather conditions, do it for the love of our fellow man and the mountains. We train comprehensively on all aspects of this activity, including the evaluation of the hazards and risks. A simple hierarchical protocol is used: My safety comes first; my teammates' safety, second; and the subject's safety, third.

It strikes me that risks and safety were not adequately evaluated in the June 9 tragic event with the State Police helicopter. Number one, the subject was not in a critical situation, only lost near camp. Why was a helicopter used at all in foul weather and at dusk?

For a true medical emergency, the Kirtland Air Force Base helicopter operations should be utilized because their people are better trained and equipped for this kind of scenario. If not available, plenty of experienced volunteer ground teams could handle the situation.

I am familiar with the system New Mexico uses to organize operations, and I think it is excellent, but something went wrong with its implementation in this event. The State Police have struggled for years to become more involved in aircraft operations with search and rescue, but we need to utilize the best resources available.

My experience involves training with nationally certified search-and-rescue teams in New Mexico and California and being on missions in Western states and Mexico. Much better helicopter training is available in California than we get here with the State Police and National Guard. This situation has been evident to me for many years, and I have lobbied strongly for improvements to consistently deaf ears. Maybe now some things can change.

We could begin by looking at the requirements of programs that provide services similar to our own, such as the air-evacuation operation that is typically used for auto accidents. There is a fair body of data for these operations, and considerable federal, and sometimes state, oversight. These are commonly called EMS or HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Situations).

In these situations, there is usually better information available about the subject/patient, and flying takes place at lower altitudes, which may not present as great a safety threat. There was a dramatic increase in HEMS accident rates in 2008, which led the NTSB to put HEMS safety on its "Most Wanted List" in 2008.

Hearings were conducted in Washington in February of this year, where many recommendations were made by the principals. Training and safety concerns were brought out by representatives of the flight nurses and paramedics. For the aircraft, it was recommended that night-vision goggles should to be mandatory and that new Helicopter Terrain Awareness and Warning Systems should be implemented. Was our helicopter so equipped? Are our pilots adequately trained in their use? Do they have current instrument flight ratings? How much training do they have in mountain flying and rescue/evacuation situations? Other inadequacies identified were the need for better dispatcher and 911-operator training.

Studies have also shown that many more accidents happen at dusk and during the transition to instrument flight operation in poor weather.

The National EMS Pilots Association guidelines recommend a minimum flight experience of 3,000 hours in helicopters, 1,000 hours in turbine helicopters and 300 hours of night flying. A recent survey by the Air Medical Journal found that the mean flight hours for EMS pilots was 6,625 hours. There is also a Public Health Administrative Code that states EMS helicopter pilots shall have a minimum of 2,000 hours as pilot-in-command.

How does this compare to the experience of our State Police pilots? It is a known and published fact that pilots and crews have a "can-do" attitude that may not lead to the safest operation. We civilian volunteers must continue to acknowledge this and respond accordingly.

I have personally been asked to fly in the State Police helicopter under inadequate safety margins to a location for a body recovery. What is wrong with horses or people power?

Other techno gadgets: I was listening to the rescue operation on my 2-meter radio, where coordinates for the wreckage were reported in hour, minutes and seconds, an arcane system that has been replaced by the much simpler Universal Transverse Mercator system that most people now use with Global Positioning System receivers. Most aircraft seem to now be using the national standard rescue radio frequency, rather than the old one which required us to carry a second radio in the field.

I regret that cancer has limited my participation in search-and-rescue operations for the last few years. However, I still count the people who have worked with me in search and rescue over the years as my best friends, and I will continue to work for their training and safety.

Santa Fean Billy Briggs is a member of the Atalaya Search and Rescue Team and the Joshua Tree Search and Rescue, Joshua Tree National Park, Calif.