United States Helicopter Safety Team-Monthly Report (July 2018)

“20% by 2020”

Monthly Report (July 2018)

The USHST, a regional partner to the International Helicopter Safety Team, set a goal in 2016 of reducing the fatal U.S. helicopter accident rate by 2020 to 0.61 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours, compared with USHST’s baseline rate of 0.76 per 100,000 hours. That number is the average fatal accident rate for 2009–2010 and 2012–2014.  The fatal accident rate has been trending downward over the past 15 years, but it has been below 0.61 only twice, and experienced a sharp increase in 2008 and 2013.

The USHST target for 2018 is to reduce the fatal accident rate to 0.65 (or lower) per 100,000 flight hours. Preliminary data for the first six months of the year show a rate of 0.71 per 100,000 hours.

On 03 October 2017, the USHST Safety Analysis Team (SAT) published a report which analyzed 104 fatal helicopter accidents that occurred between 2009 and 2013.  The accidents were evaluated according to the taxonomy developed by the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Using the CAST/ICAO Common Taxonomy Team’s (CICTT’s) guidelines.  The SAT Team members assigned each accident to a single CICTT occurrence category. The Top 3 CICTT codes were Loss of Control – Inflight (LOC-I), Unintended Flight Into IMC (UIMC) and Low Altitude (LALT).  These three categories accounted for 50% of the fatal accidents analyzed and were responsible for more fatalities (104) than the remaining CICTT categories combined (96).

The U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) issued a report on its study in October, along with 22 recommended “safety enhancements” that address four general issues — Outreach, Training, Policy, Technology & Equipment, the development and successful implantation is intended to reduce the number of fatalities.

To view the USHST Monthly Update, click the link below:

https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2018/Jul/USHST_Monthly_UPDATE_2018_-_07.pdf