U.S. Helicopter Safety Team,
Attached is the Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for October 2019, the first month of FY20.
Monthly Summary
October Totals: 12 accidents, 4 fatal accidents, 6 fatalities
-The 12 accidents were 4 accidents higher than the previous October, the highest for an October since FY14, and tied for the second highest October in the last 10 years.
-The 4 fatal accidents was the highest count for an October since FY13.
Accidents:
-The estimated accident rate through 1 month was 3.76 accidents per 100K flight hours.
Fatal Accidents:
-The estimated fatal accident rate through 1 month was 1.25 fatal accidents per 100K flight hours.
-This was the third consecutive October where 3 or more fatal accidents occurred.
-The 4 fatal accidents during the month resulted in October FY20 ranking as one of the 8 worst Octobers in the last 38 years for fatal accident counts.
-The 4 fatal accidents during the month occurred within 8 days of each other (October 17-25).
Fatalities:
-The estimated fatality rate through 1 month was 1.88 per 100K flight hours.
Other Notes:
-The U.S. rotorcraft industry went 93 consecutive days without a fatal accident before the first fatal accident of October. The first day without a fatality was July 16, and the last was October 16. This was the longest number of consecutive fatality-free days for U.S rotorcraft since 2012 (102 days, starting 2/16/2012 and ending 5/27/2012).
Lee Roskop
Safety Management Section, AIR-682
Rotorcraft Standards Branch, Policy & Innovation Division
817-222-5337
lee.roskop@faa.gov
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