Attached is the Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for July 2024 (ninth 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
June Totals: 8 accidents, 1 fatal accident, 2 fatalities
- The 8 accidents tied for the lowest accident count for the month of June for the 42 FYs on record. FY23 and FY15 were the only two previous FYs when this occurred for the month of June.
FY24 Summary
FY24 Totals: 65 accidents, 9 fatal accidents, 19 fatalities
Accidents (includes both fatal & non-fatal accidents):
- The FY24 estimated accident rate for Oct-Jun was 3.04 per 100K hours (less than 1% higher than the same period in FY23 and 17% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The accident count of 65 for Oct-Jun remained the third lowest total for that time period for the 42 FYs on record, trailing only FY23 (63 accidents) and FY20 (62 accidents).
- This was the first time in the 42 FYs on record that the month of June had back to back years (FY23 and FY24) with less than 10 accidents.
Fatal Accidents:
- The FY24 estimated fatal accident rate for Oct-Jun was 0.42 per 100K hours (13% lower than the same period in FY23 and 45% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The fatal accident count of 9 for Oct-Jun was the lowest for that time period for the 42 FYs on record.
- Through 9 months of FY24, the percentage of accidents with a fatality remained at 14%. This would tie FY17 for the lowest in the past 10 years if the percentage persists to the conclusion of FY24.
Fatalities:
- The FY24 estimated fatality rate for Oct-Jun was 0.89 per 100K hours (16% lower than the same period in FY23, 41% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The 19 fatalities from Oct-Jun remained the second lowest for that time period for the 42 FYs on record, continuing to trail only FY11 (12 fatalities).
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 0.63 per 100K hours through Jun 2024.
Lee Roskop
Aviation Safety Coordinator (Rotorcraft)
Fleet Safety Section, AIR-723
Operational Safety Branch, Compliance & Airworthiness Division
817-222-5337
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