FAA Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing - December
Attached is the Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for December 2023 (third month of FY24).
(Covers Part 27, Part 29, and Restricted Category rotorcraft accidents to U.S. registered aircraft. Does not include gyrocopters or experimental aircraft.)
Please access the information from this briefing directly anytime at the FAA’s publicly available, Rotorcraft Accident Dashboard.
Find “Dashboard Navigation” near the top of the default page and click either “Historical Briefing” or “Make Model Breakdown” for access to all 3 pages of visualized and interactive data.
Monthly Summary
December Totals: 4 accidents, 2 fatal accidents, 3 fatalities
- This was only the 5th FY for the 42 years on record that 4 or less accidents occurred during the month of December. Four of those have been since FY18.
FY24 Summary
FY24 Totals: 21 accidents, 4 fatal accidents, 6 fatalities
- All counts and rates for Oct-Dec across accidents, fatal accidents, and fatalities were equal to or better than both the same period last FY and the 5 year average.
Accidents (includes both fatal & non-fatal accidents):
- The FY24 estimated accident rate for Oct-Dec was 3.13 per 100K hours (15% lower than the same period in FY23 and 9% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The FY24 accident count (21 total) for Oct-Dec ranks 5th lowest for the 42 FYs on record.
Fatal Accidents:
- The FY24 estimated fatal accident rate for Oct-Dec was 0.6 per 100K hours (3% lower than the same period in FY23, 28% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The fatal accident count for Oct-Dec was the same (4 total) for both FY23 and FY24. This ties for the third lowest count in the last 42 FYs for Oct-Dec.
- 19% of the accidents that occurred Oct-Dec were fatal.
- There have been 2 or more fatal accidents during December for each of the past five FYs.
Fatalities:
- The FY24 estimated fatality rate for Oct-Dec was 0.89 per 100K hours (27% lower than the same period in FY23, 44% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
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 2019-2023 5 year average fatal accident rate was 0.73 per 100K hours through December 2023.
Lee Roskop
Aviation Safety Coordinator (Rotorcraft)
Fleet Safety Section, AIR-723
Operational Safety Branch, Compliance & Airworthiness Division
817-222-5337
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