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 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) 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.
"The war in Iraq escalated and the goggles weren't available," said Gary Sizemore, president of the National EMS Pilots Association and a pilot in Perry, Fla. "We were put on a waiting list."
Mr. Sizemore estimated that only 25 percent of the 800 or so emergency medical helicopters in the U.S. have the technology. He said he would like such gear on his own helicopter so he could better navigate the dark pine forest over which he routinely flies in northern Florida.
Night-vision goggles take the tiny amount of light from the stars or the moon and amplify it hundreds of times, enabling the pilot to see in the dark and avoid flying into mountains, wires or other obstructions.