Night Vision Goggle Shortage Hitting Close To Home

The war in Iraq is creating a unique shortage here at home. It's a supply shortage of night vision goggles for pilots who fly medical helicopters. The goggles cut down on the number of deadly night time crashes.

News On 6 anchor Lori Fullbright reports the military demand for them has created a waiting list of about a year for civilian pilots.

The problem has affected a Life Flight crew in Tulsa.

Lead Pilot Randy Warren got his night vision goggles in March with the arrival of this new, state of the art, Life Flight medical chopper. The goggles were on order between eight and 12 months.

"The demand is always in flux because of the war in Iraq. There were several times we were slated to get delivery and it was pushed back because the military took precedence, which I can understand," said Warren.

They were worth the wait.

Warren says the goggles are a great safety tool in their mission to save lives in all types of terrain and all hours of the day and night.

The goggles help pilots see cliffs, wires and other obstacles before it's too late.

"It's just the difference between night and day to be able to look through the device and have a 40 degree field of view that's illuminated as though it's daytime. Of course, it's mono-chromatic, so everything looks green, but, you can see shadows, power lines, poles, trees, cattle, water, it really is the difference between night and day, literally," said Warren.

Even though only one-third of the medical flights are done at night, more than half the crashes happen then.

One happened last Sunday in Texas, the pilot, flight nurse, paramedic and patient all died. No one knows whether goggles could've made a difference, but pilots say any safety feature that gives them an edge, is welcome.