FAA Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing - July
Attached is the Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for July 2024 (tenth 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
July Totals: 17 accidents, 5 fatal accident, 8 fatalities
- July had the highest monthly accident total so far in FY24. The 17 accidents were also the highest monthly total since July 2023 (21 accidents).
- For 6 different FYs over the previous 10 years, July had the highest accident count of any month.
- The industry sectors of Aerial Application (6 accidents during the month) and Personal/Private (4 accidents during the month) together accounted for 59% of the accidents during the month.
- The 5 fatal accidents that occurred during July were 3 fatal accidents higher than any of the other single month in FY24. For further context, the months of Jan-Jun combined had 5 fatal accidents.
- Of the 5 fatal accidents during July, 2 of the 5 were U.S. registered but occurred outside of the U.S. (1 in Canada, 1 in Ireland).
FY24 Summary
FY24 Totals: 83 accidents, 14 fatal accidents, 27 fatalities
Accidents (includes both fatal & non-fatal accidents):
- The FY24 estimated accident rate for Oct-Jul was 3.44 per 100K hours (4% lower than the same period in FY23 and 13% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The accident count of 83 for Oct-Jul remained the third lowest total for that time period for the 42 FYs on record, trailing only FY21 (80 accidents) and FY20 (81 accidents).
- The following 3 industry sectors accounted for 55% of the accidents for Oct-Jul: Personal/Private (25%), Aerial Application (17%), and Instructional/Training (13%).
Fatal Accidents:
- The FY24 estimated fatal accident rate for Oct-Jul was 0.58 per 100K hours (3% lower than the same period in FY23 and 27% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The 5 fatal accidents in July increased the FY24 fatal accident count 56% from the FY24 Oct-Jun total.
- The Personal/Private industry sector accounted for 43% of the Oct-Jul fatal accidents, over 3 times higher than the percentage of the next highest industry sector.
- Through 10 months of FY24, the percentage of accidents with a fatality was 17%.
Fatalities:
- The FY24 estimated fatality rate for Oct-Jul was 1.12 per 100K hours (10% lower than the same period in FY23, 28% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The 27 fatalities from Oct-Jul was the third lowest for that time period for the 42 FYs on record, trailing FY11 and FY17.
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 0.64 per 100K hours through Jul 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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