Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for October 2019

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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