FAA Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing - November
Attached is the Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for November 2023 (second 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
November Totals: 8 accidents, 1 fatal accident, 2 fatalities
FY24 Summary
FY24 Totals: 15 accidents, 2 fatal accidents, 3 fatalities
Accidents (includes both fatal & non-fatal accidents):
- The FY24 estimated accident rate for Oct-Nov was 3.14 per 100K hours (4% higher than the same period in FY23 but 5% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- Of the 15 accidents in the first two months of the FY, 8 involved either the industry sector of Personal/Private (4 total) or Instructional/Training (4 total). None of the 8 accidents in these industry sectors were fatal.
Fatal Accidents:
- The FY24 estimated fatal accident rate for Oct-Nov was 0.42 per 100K hours (3% lower than the same period in FY23, 38% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
Fatalities:
- The FY24 estimated fatality rate for Oct-Nov was 0.63 per 100K hours (3% lower than the same period in FY23, 47% 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 0.72 per 100K hours through November 2023 (down .06 from the 5 year average in November 2022).
Lee Roskop
Aviation Safety Coordinator (Rotorcraft)
Fleet Safety Section, AIR-723
Operational Safety Branch, Compliance & Airworthiness Division
817-222-5337
