FAA Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing - March
Attached is the Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for March 2024 (sixth 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
March Totals: 7 accidents, 0 fatal accidents, 0 fatalities
- For the first month so far in FY24, a fatal accident did not occur.
- This was the first time since FY12 where a fatal accident did not occur during March.
- Of the 7 accidents during the month, 3 involved Helicopter Air Ambulance (HAA) and 3 involved Personal/Private operations.
- Of the 3 HAA accidents, preliminary information suggested bird involvement in 2 of the 3.
FY24 Summary
FY24 Totals: 44 accidents, 7 fatal accidents, 16 fatalities
Accidents (includes both fatal & non-fatal accidents):
- The FY24 estimated accident rate for Oct-Mar was 3.22 per 100K hours (6% higher than the same period in FY23 and 6% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- Personal/Private continued to lead all industry sectors with 12 accidents through 6 months of the FY (28% of the FY total). HAA and Air Tour/Sightseeing tied for second highest, with 6 accidents in each industry sector (each accounted for 14% of the FY total).
- For the 6 HAA accidents from Oct-Mar, 5 out of the 6 (83%) had bird involvement either documented in the preliminary information or the final NTSB report. This included 1 fatal accident.
Fatal Accidents:
- The FY24 estimated fatal accident rate for Oct-Mar was 0.51 per 100K hours (16% lower than the same period in FY23 and 32% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- 16% of the accidents that have occurred in the FY have been fatal.
Fatalities:
- The FY24 estimated fatality rate for Oct-Mar was 1.17 per 100K hours (19% lower than the same period in FY23, 30% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) Calendar Year Metrics
Includes only helicopter accidents that meet the following criteria:
1. U.S. registered aircraft
2. Operating in the U.S./U.S. territories (includes offshore)
- USHST 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 (0.58 per 100K hours, revised from 0.62) as their baseline for measurement.
- The CY 2020-2024 5 year average fatal accident rate was 0.65 per 100K hours through March 2024.
Lee Roskop
Aviation Safety Coordinator (Rotorcraft)
Fleet Safety Section, AIR-723
Operational Safety Branch, Compliance & Airworthiness Division
817-222-5337
