FAA’s Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for August 2021

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USHST,

Attached is the FAA’s Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for August 2021 (eleventh month of FY21).

Monthly Summary

Totals: 11 accidents, 1 fatal accident, 4 fatalities

-Continuing the trend from the last several months, the majority of the accidents during the month were either personal/private or aerial application operations (7 of 11 events, 64%).

Cumulative FY21 Summary (Oct – Aug)

FY21, Totals: 90 accidents, 15 fatal accidents, 30 fatalities

Accidents:

- For Oct – Aug, the estimated accident rate was 3.39 per 100K hours.

- The cumulative accident count of 90 for Oct – Aug was tied with FY20 for the lowest Oct – Aug total for the 39 years on record.

- Through 11 months of the FY, 54% of the accidents have occurred in two industry categories: Personal/Private (37%) and Aerial Application (17%). No other individual industry category accounted for more than 8%.

Fatal Accidents:

- For Oct – Aug, the estimated fatal accident rate was 0.56 per 100K hours.

- Among the 39 years on record, FY21 is tied for the second lowest count of fatal accidents from Oct – Aug.

- Through 11 months, 17% of the accidents in the FY have had a fatality, identical to the long-term historical average.

- The summer months of June, July, and August had 4 total fatal accidents in FY21, over a 60% reduction from FY20 when 11 fatal accidents occurred during the same three months.

- This was only the fourth time in the last 39 years where 4 or less fatal accidents occurred during June, July, and August.

- Of the 15 fatal accidents in the FY, 54% have occurred in either Personal/Private (27%) or Aerial Application (27%).

Fatalities:

- For Oct – Aug, the estimated fatality rate was 1.13 per 100K hours.

- Of 15 fatal accidents Oct – Aug, there were 6 with multiple fatalities. There were 4 fatal accidents with 4 or more fatalities.

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 (5 year average of 0.62 per 100K hours) as their baseline for measurement.

- The CY 2017-2021 5 year average fatal accident rate was 0.72 per 100K hours.

- For the years that will be included in the USHST’s final measurement in 2025 (CY 2020-2021), the average fatal accident rate was 0.68 per 100K hours.

Lee Roskop

Fleet Safety Section, AIR-723

Operational Safety Branch, Compliance & Airworthiness Division

817-222-5337

lee.roskop@faa.gov

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