FAA’s Rotorcraft Monthly Accident Briefing for July

USHST,

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

Monthly Summary

Totals: 10 accidents, 2 fatal accidents, 3 fatalities

-With 6 aerial application accidents and 3 personal/private accidents, together the two industry sectors accounted for 90% of the month’s accidents.

-Total accidents in July (10) were 47% lower than July 2020 (19)

Cumulative FY21 Summary (Oct – Jul)

FY21, Totals: 80 accidents, 14 fatal accidents, 26 fatalities

Accidents:

- For Oct – Jul, the estimated accident rate remained constant at 3.32 per 100K hours.

- The cumulative accident count of 80 for Oct – Jul was the lowest for those 10 months for the 39 years on record, slightly better than the 81 accidents for the same time period in FY20.

- Through 10 months of the FY, 52% of the accidents have occurred in two industry categories: Personal/Private (36%) and Aerial Application (16%). No other industry category accounted for more than 8%.

Fatal Accidents:

- For Oct – Jul, the estimated fatal accident rate was 0.58 per 100K hours, a slight increase from Oct – Jun (0.56).

- Among the 39 years on record, FY21 is tied with 3 other years for the third lowest count of fatal accidents from Oct – Jul.

- Through 10 months, 18% of the accidents in the FY have had a fatality, a slight increase from Oct – Jun and slightly above the long term historical average (17%).

- Preliminary evidence of wire strike for 4 out of the last 6 fatal accidents. All are still under investigation by the NTSB and probable cause has not been assigned.

- Of the 14 fatal accidents in the FY, 50% have occurred in either Aerial Application (4) or Personal/Private (3).

Fatalities:

- For Oct – Jul, the estimated fatality rate remained constant at 1.08 per 100K hours.

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 remained unchanged at 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 remained unchanged at 0.70 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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