FAA Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing - June

Attached is the Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for June 2020 (75% of FY20 is complete).

Note: Calculation of monthly

and cumulative rotorcraft safety rates resumed this month based on estimates of COVID-19 flight hour reductions for March, April, and May.

Monthly Summary

Totals: 12 accidents, 3 fatal accidents, 5 fatalities

-25% of the accidents during the month occurred during agricultural aerial application flights.

Cumulative FY20 Summary, Oct-Jun

FY20, Cumulative Totals: 64 accidents, 16 fatal accidents, 37 fatalities

Accidents:

-The Oct-Jun total accident count of 64 was the lowest for that time period for the 38 FYs on record. The next closest cumulative count for Oct-Jun was 74 in FY15.

-The estimated accident rate was 3.00 per 100K hours and would be the lowest of the 10 years currently being tracked if it continues to the end of the FY.

Fatal Accidents:

-The Oct-Jun total fatal accident count of 16 was 6 events lower than the same timeframe in FY19 (22 fatal accidents).

-The estimated fatal accident rate was 0.75 per 100K hours. While comparable to the full year rates for both FY18 (0.79) and FY19 (0.80), it lags six of the most recent 10 years (rates ranging from 0.5 to 0.62).

-25% of the accidents that occurred so far in the FY were fatal, no change from Oct-May and still trending above the recent historical averages of 16-17%.

Fatalities:

-The Oct-Jun total fatality count of 37 was better than both FY18 and FY19 for the same time period, but will be higher than the full year totals for five of the FYs since 2011.

-The estimated fatality rate was 1.73 per 100K hours and would be the second highest of the 10 years currently being tracked if it continues to the end of the FY.

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 fatal accident rate from CYs 2014-2018 (0.62 per 100K hours) as their baseline for measurement.

-The CY 2016-2020 5 year average fatal accident rate was 0.68 per 100K hours through June 2020.

Lee Roskop

Safety Management Section, AIR-682 Rotorcraft Standards Branch, Policy & Innovation Division 817-222-5337 lee.roskop@faa.gov