FAA Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing - September (End of FY25)

Lee Roskop
Oct 9
4 min read

Attached is the Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for September 2025 (final month of FY25).

(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”, “USHST Metrics”, or “Make Model Breakdown” for access to all 4 pages of visualized and interactive data.

Monthly Summary

September Totals: 7 accidents, 2 fatal accidents, 4 fatalities

- The 7 accidents during the month tied for the second lowest September total in the last 43 FYs. This was only the fourth time a September has had a monthly accident total less than 10.

- There were four industry sectors with accidents during the month: Helicopter Air Ambulance, Instructional/Training, Personal/Private, and Utilities Patrol/Construction. None of them had more than 2 accidents.

FY25 Summary

FY25 Totals: 95 accidents, 20 fatal accidents, 41 fatalities

Accidents (includes both fatal & non-fatal accidents):

- The FY25 estimated accident rate for the full year was 3.14 per 100K hours (7% lower than the same period in FY24 and 19% lower than the 5-year average for the same period).

Both the overall accident count (95) and accident rate (3.14) were the lowest of any FY on record.

- By percentage of overall accidents, the highest industry sectors were: 1) Personal/Private (34%, 32 events) and 2) tie Aerial Application and Helicopter Air Ambulance (EACH with 13%, 12 events).

- Distribution of accidents by Operating Part for FY25 was:

-- Part 91 – 57%, Part 133 – 6%, Part 135 – 15%, Part 137 – 13%. Remaining accidents: 3% operated as public aircraft and 6% operated outside the U.S.

- Historical distribution of flight hours (for comparison with percentage of accidents):

-- Part 91 – 55%, Part 133 – 6%, Part 135 – 31%, Part 137 – 8%. Flight hours are unknown for public aircraft and aircraft operating outside the U.S.

Fatal Accidents:

- The FY25 estimated fatal accident rate for the full year was 0.66 per 100K hours (22% higher than the same period in FY24 and 4% lower than the 5-year average for the same period).

- By percentage of fatal accidents, the highest industry sectors were: 1) Personal/Private (40%, 8 events), 2) (4-way tie), Aerial Application, Air Tour/Sightseeing, Helicopter Air Ambulance, and Utilities Patrol/Construction (EACH with 10%, 2 events).

- For the first year since FY13, there was a fatal accident in each month of the FY.

- For only the fifth time in the last 43 FYs, there were at least 6 months of the FY where only 1 fatal accident occurred. For the first time ever, this has happened in consecutive years (FY24 and FY25).

- Distribution of fatal accidents by Operating Part for FY25 was:

-- Part 91 – 50%, Part 133 – 10%, Part 135 – 15%, Part 137 – 10%. Remaining fatal accidents: 5% operated as public aircraft and 10% operated outside the U.S.

- Historical distribution of flight hours (for comparison with percentage of fatal accidents):

-- Part 91 – 55%, Part 133 – 6%, Part 135 – 31%, Part 137 – 8%. Flight hours are unknown for public aircraft and aircraft operating outside the U.S.

Fatalities:

- The FY25 estimated fatality rate for the full year was 1.36 per 100K hours (38% higher than the same period in FY24, 4% higher than the 5-year average for the same period).

- 21% of the rotorcraft accidents in FY25 had a fatality. This was a 5% increase over the percentage observed in each of the preceding 4 years (2021-2024 each were 16%). They FY25 percentage was the highest since FY20 when 25% of the accidents had a fatality.

- By percentage of fatalities, the highest industry sectors were: 1) Personal/Private (32%, 13 fatalities), 2) Air/Tour Sightseeing (24%, 10 fatalities), and 3) Helicopter Air Ambulance (14%, 6 fatalities).

- Distribution of fatalities by Operating Part for FY25 was:

-- Part 91 – 54%, Part 133 – 10%, Part 135 – 20%, Part 137 – 5%. Remaining fatalities: 2% on public aircraft and 10% on aircraft operated outside the U.S.

- Historical distribution of flight hours (for comparison with percentage of fatalities):

-- Part 91 – 55%, Part 133 – 6%, Part 135 – 31%, Part 137 – 8%. Flight hours are unknown for public aircraft and aircraft operating outside the U.S.

U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) Calendar Year Metrics

The USHST’s 5-year goals for 2025-2029 are based on individual 14 CFR Operating Parts, tracked by the 5-year average fatal accident rates per 100K hours.

14 CFR Part	Baseline, CY2018-2022 (per 100K hours)	Goal, CY2025-2029 (per 100K hours)	Progress, CY2021-2025 (per 100K hours)
91	0.81	0.73 (10% reduction)	0.59
133	1.73	1.56 (10% reduction)	0.61
135	0.33	0.17 (50% reduction)	0.34
137	1.11	1.00 (10% reduction)	1.45