Page 43 - July 2015 Issue
P. 43
An Exclusive Interview with Stephen Richey of Kolibri
Aviation Safety Research By Elite Investigative Journal
most important aspect of the project. It became
readily apparent that a number of the victims
for whom I received autopsy reports could have
conceivably survived with improvements to the
structure of the aircraft, the seats, the restraints and
such. This kind of led me off the path I had intended
for myself- which involved going to medical school
to specialize in emergency medicine- and refocused
me on forensic injury biomechanics and crash
survivability research. I think a lot of that had to do
with the loss of several friends in light aircraft crashes
and of colleagues and friends in medical helicopter
crashes.
EIJ: Tell me, when did you begin working at
Photo Courtesy of Stephen Richey Kolibri Aviation Safety Research. What are your
Name: Stephen Richey responsibilities as an Aviation Safety/Injury
City of birth: Terre Haute, Indiana Biomechanics Researcher?
Occupation: Aviation Safety/Injury Stephen Richey: I left Saginaw Valley State
Biomechanics/Crash Survivability Researcher; also the University in 2009 to move back home to Indiana due
executive director of the non-proit we are establishing to some health issues within my family and needed
around the research a “base of operations” to continue the project. Lack
Company: Kolibri Aviation Safety and Survivability of an academic appointment necessitated creation
Research of Kolibri (the name of which is derived from the
Credentials: Previously, I trained as an EMS provider, German word for “hummingbird”) to give the research
a “home”. It was just a one-person operation until
respiratory therapist and a deputy coroner. I am 2011 when my then girlfriend Kat (now my wife)
preparing to go back to work on my masters in forensic came on board as a research assistant. Her primary
medicine. I also have several hundred hours logged as job is as an EMT so she is well versed in trauma and
a pilot of ultralight aircraft and another 100 hours as a thus has really been a major beneit to the project.
student pilot in larger over the years. She, several of our friends and colleagues and myself
EIJ: I would like to start by asking you about your started working in 2014 to shift the work into a new
entity organized as a non-proit.
research on Crash Survivability that you did at
Saginaw Valley State University. Please tell me the This is happening for a couple of reasons. The
details about this research and what were your reasons for this are both personal and practical. The
indings? irst is that I have a moral problem with operating
the company as a for-proit entity due to the possible
Stephen Richey: The project actually started out to perception that we are proiting from the work we do.
settle a debate between a trauma surgeon friend of mine Since our work is focused around learning from loss
and myself over how age affects the risk of injury to the and/or suffering of those who are killed or injured in
aorta. I decided to look into it using aircraft crash data. aircraft crashes, it is important to keep the ethics of
The data did not show any substantial independent link what we do as sound as we can. Creation of a non-
between age and the injury in question within our study proit allows us to assure others that any money we do
population. While that was interesting, that wasn’t the derive from the work- which at present is not much
43
Aviation Safety Research By Elite Investigative Journal
most important aspect of the project. It became
readily apparent that a number of the victims
for whom I received autopsy reports could have
conceivably survived with improvements to the
structure of the aircraft, the seats, the restraints and
such. This kind of led me off the path I had intended
for myself- which involved going to medical school
to specialize in emergency medicine- and refocused
me on forensic injury biomechanics and crash
survivability research. I think a lot of that had to do
with the loss of several friends in light aircraft crashes
and of colleagues and friends in medical helicopter
crashes.
EIJ: Tell me, when did you begin working at
Photo Courtesy of Stephen Richey Kolibri Aviation Safety Research. What are your
Name: Stephen Richey responsibilities as an Aviation Safety/Injury
City of birth: Terre Haute, Indiana Biomechanics Researcher?
Occupation: Aviation Safety/Injury Stephen Richey: I left Saginaw Valley State
Biomechanics/Crash Survivability Researcher; also the University in 2009 to move back home to Indiana due
executive director of the non-proit we are establishing to some health issues within my family and needed
around the research a “base of operations” to continue the project. Lack
Company: Kolibri Aviation Safety and Survivability of an academic appointment necessitated creation
Research of Kolibri (the name of which is derived from the
Credentials: Previously, I trained as an EMS provider, German word for “hummingbird”) to give the research
a “home”. It was just a one-person operation until
respiratory therapist and a deputy coroner. I am 2011 when my then girlfriend Kat (now my wife)
preparing to go back to work on my masters in forensic came on board as a research assistant. Her primary
medicine. I also have several hundred hours logged as job is as an EMT so she is well versed in trauma and
a pilot of ultralight aircraft and another 100 hours as a thus has really been a major beneit to the project.
student pilot in larger over the years. She, several of our friends and colleagues and myself
EIJ: I would like to start by asking you about your started working in 2014 to shift the work into a new
entity organized as a non-proit.
research on Crash Survivability that you did at
Saginaw Valley State University. Please tell me the This is happening for a couple of reasons. The
details about this research and what were your reasons for this are both personal and practical. The
indings? irst is that I have a moral problem with operating
the company as a for-proit entity due to the possible
Stephen Richey: The project actually started out to perception that we are proiting from the work we do.
settle a debate between a trauma surgeon friend of mine Since our work is focused around learning from loss
and myself over how age affects the risk of injury to the and/or suffering of those who are killed or injured in
aorta. I decided to look into it using aircraft crash data. aircraft crashes, it is important to keep the ethics of
The data did not show any substantial independent link what we do as sound as we can. Creation of a non-
between age and the injury in question within our study proit allows us to assure others that any money we do
population. While that was interesting, that wasn’t the derive from the work- which at present is not much
43
