Monthly Safety Report
As of: 12 Jul 2019
Did “YOU” Know?
In the past decade 2013 was the most dangerous year for fatal helicopter accidents; possibly until this year!
The fatal accident rate at the midpoint point of the year is 0.84 per 100,000 flight hours. From a statistician’s perspective this indicates regression, from the perspective of those who work within this industry it means that since 01 Jan 2019, there are 27 Souls On Board who didn't make it back to the hangar and are headed west!
So what type of response does this negative trend require? I believe that it needs 100% effort by everyone in the helicopter industry to use the “correct” tools and training that we have been provided by our training cadre and/or mentors and take a serious look how we operate on a daily basis. Review the NTSB Preliminary and Final reports published and do some arm chair flying and “what if” scenarios to ensure that you don’t become a statistic too!
Each year the U.S. helicopter industry safely flies more than 3.2 million flight hours and every second of every flight must be handled with professionalism. The USHST encourages aviation safety professionals to review NTSB accident reports to review the Accident Analysis, Probable Cause and Findings.(Note: NTSB Preliminary reports are posted within 15 days)
In the last 12 months, the USHST continued to implement over 20 Helicopter—Safety Enhancements (H-SE) that they developed through data-driven analysis of 104 fatal accidents.The H-SEs use Outreach, Policy, Technology/Equipment, and Training in an effort to reduce fatal accidents from the leading occurrence categories of Loss of Control—Inflight (LOC-I), Unintended Flight into IMC (UIMC), and striking objects during Low Altitude (LALT) operations.
To view the entire USHST Monthly Report, click on the links below:
http://ushst.org/Reports
For any questions regarding this notice please contact Scott Tyrrell of the Rotorcraft Standardization Branch, AIR-612, at 817-222-5121 or email at scott.tyrrell@faa.gov
