FAA Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing - June
Attached is the Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for June 2022 (9th month of FY22).
Announcements:
**You may now access the information from this briefing directly anytime at the following NEW FAA public site, Rotorcraft Accident Dashboard.**
-To access the second page of the online dashboard, look in the upper right hand corner for “Historical Briefing Tab” and click on it. You may return to the first page of the dashboard by clicking on “Fiscal Year Briefing Tab” in the same upper right hand corner.
-All rates for FY2021 and FY2022 changed this month based on updated flight hour forecast data recently released by the FAA. Both years had flight hour reductions of approximately 300,000 hours (about 10%), resulting in an increase to both the FY2021 and FY2022 rates. The FY2021 rates will be updated again later this year when the flight hours available from the FAA’s General Aviation and Part 135 Activity Survey are released.
Monthly Summary
Totals: 13 accidents, 3 fatal accidents, 4 fatalities
- For the third month so far in FY22, at least 3 fatal accidents occurred.
- A fourth fatal rotorcraft accident with 6 fatalities occurred involving a UH-1, but the event is not included in the count since the aircraft was in experimental – exhibition status. The monthly accident briefing is limited to Part 27, Part 29, and Restricted Category rotorcraft.
- Of the 13 accidents during the month, 6 occurred in the Personal/Private and Aerial Application industry sectors (3 each).
Cumulative FY22 Summary, Oct-Jun
FY22, Totals: 86 accidents, 18 fatal accidents, 30 fatalities
Accidents:
- The Oct-Jun estimated accident rate was 4.33 per 100K hours.
- Compared to the same time period in FY21, the FY22 Oct-Jun accident rate was up 20%. Compared to the 5 year average for the same time frame it was up 20%.
- Through 9 months of FY22, 69% of accidents occurred in one of the following four industry sectors: 1) Personal/Private – 22%, 2) Instructional/Training – 20%, 3) Aerial Application – 14%, 4) Helicopter Air Ambulance – 13%.
Fatal Accidents:
- The Oct-Jun estimated fatal accident rate was 0.91 per 100K hours, ending the slight decreases that had occurred for the three consecutive months of March, April, and May.
- Compared to the same time period in FY21, the FY22 Oct-Jun fatal accident rate was up 45%. Compared to the 5 year average for the same time frame it was up 16%.
- Through 9 months of FY22, 67% of fatal accidents occurred in one of the following three industry sectors: 1) Personal/Private – 39%, 2) Instructional/Training – 17%, 3) Aerial Application – 11%.
- 21% of the rotorcraft accidents in FY22 have had a fatality.
Fatalities:
- The FY22 estimated fatality rate through Jun was 1.51 per 100K hours.
U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) Calendar Year Metrics
- Goal: Reduce the 5 year average fatal accident rate to 0.55 per 100K hours by 2025. The USHST uses the 5 year average fatal accident rate from CYs 2014-2018 (0.62 per 100K hours) as their baseline for measurement.
- The CY 2018-2022 5 year average fatal accident rate was 0.81 per 100K hours through Jun 2022.
Lee Roskop
Fleet Safety Section, AIR-723
Operational Safety Branch, Compliance & Airworthiness Division
817-222-5337
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