FAA Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing - May
Attached is the Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for May 2024 (eighth 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
May Totals: 7 accidents, 0 fatal accidents, 0 fatalities
- Three of the 7 accidents during the month were in the Instructional/Training industry sector. The other 4 accidents were distributed in 4 different industry sectors.
- This was only the third time for the 42 FYs on records where the month of May had 7 or fewer accidents. All three instances have occurred in the last five FYs.
- For only the fourth time in the last 42 FYs, there were zero fatal accidents in the month of May. This previously occurred in FY22, FY05, and FY96.
FY24 Summary
FY24 Totals: 57 accidents, 8 fatal accidents, 17 fatalities
Accidents (includes both fatal & non-fatal accidents):
- The FY24 estimated accident rate for Oct-May was 3.05 per 100K hours (1% higher than the same period in FY23 and 12% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The accident count of 57 for Oct-May was the third lowest total for that time period for the 42 FYs on record, trailing only FY23 (55 accidents) and FY20 (50 accidents).
Fatal Accidents:
- The FY24 estimated fatal accident rate for Oct-May was 0.43 per 100K hours (22% lower than the same period in FY23 and 43% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The fatal accident count of 8 for Oct-May was the lowest for that time period for the 42 FYs on record.
- There have been two months without fatal accidents so far in FY24 (March, and now May).
- Through the first 8 months of FY24, the percentage of accidents with a fatality is at 14%. This would be the lowest since FY17 if it persists to the conclusion of FY24.
Fatalities:
- The FY24 estimated fatality rate for Oct-May was 0.91 per 100K hours (25% lower than the same period in FY23, 41% lower than the 5 year average for the same period).
- The 17 fatalities from Oct-May was the second lowest for that time period for the 42 FYs on record, trailing only FY11 (11 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 May 2024.
Lee Roskop
Aviation Safety Coordinator (Rotorcraft)
Fleet Safety Section, AIR-723
Operational Safety Branch, Compliance & Airworthiness Division
817-222-5337
