Iraq war creates shortage of night vision gear in US

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The war in Iraq is creating a major -- and perhaps deadly -- shortage of night vision goggles for civilian pilots who fly medical helicopters in the U.S.

The shortage figured in a Wisconsin accident last month. A helicopter used by the University of Wisconsin Hospital's Med Flight program slammed into a bluff at La Crosse, killing a doctor, nurse and pilot. The chopper had no night vision gear.

The National Transportation Safety Board has encouraged the use of such equipment since 2006 to reduce the risk of deadly nighttime crashes during emergency medical flights.

But air ambulance services that fly sick or injured people to the hospital have been put on waiting lists of a year or more by makers of night vision gear because the U.S. military has contracts that give it priority.

Perry, Florida, pilot Gary Sizemore heads the National EMS Pilots Association. He says the war has made the goggles unavailable, causing medical pilots to be put on a waiting list.

Sizemore estimates only 25 percent of the 800 or so emergency medical helicopters in the U.S. have the technology. He says he would like such gear on his own helicopter so he could better navigate the dark pine forest he routinely flies over in northern Florida.