US Helicopter Safety Team (USHST)
Monthly Safety Report
May 2021
Fatal Accident Rate: 0.70 (+.15) above goal of 0.55 fatal accidents per 100K hrs by 2025
USHST Vision: A Civil Helicopter Community with Zero Fatal Accidents
“Safety by the Numbers” (Monthly Metrics):
Days since last Fatal helicopter accident: 2 Days : 1 Hour : 53 Minutes : 56 Seconds
Fatal Accident Rate (5yr avg)(CY2017-21) 0.70 Fatal Accidents per 100K
Flight HoursFatal Accident Rate (CY2021) 6 Fatal Accidents per 100K Flight Hours
The USHST continues to work on the implementation of 16 Helicopter - Safety Enhancements (H-SE) developed through data-driven analysis of 104 fatal accidents. The H-SE’s 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 Operations (LALT).
H-SE 81: Simulators and Outside-the Envelope Flight Conditions
Provide recommendations for developing better mathematical/physics-based models for helicopter flight dynamics in order to achieve more realistic, higher-fidelity simulations of outside-the-envelope flight conditions. Current models are not accurate at edge-of-the-envelope and outside-of-the-envelope flight regimes. This may lead to unrealistic training of maneuvers such as loss of tail rotor effectiveness, vortex ring state/settling with power, and autorotations and a negative transfer of training when similar situations are encountered during actual flight.
US Helicopter Safety Team Press Release:
Path for Automatic Flight Control Systems in Light Helicopters
To view the entire USHST Monthly Report, click on the links below:
https://ushst.org/reports/
For any questions regarding the information within this notice please contact Clarke Pleasants, Program Chair-Rotor, ERAU, at 928-7774730 or email at william.pleasants@erau.edu
