AircraftOwner Online

It’s often said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” When it comes to improving rotorcraft safety, this is certainly true. The model followed is the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST); the follower is the International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST).

The helicopter community came together in 2005 to form the IHST, whose sole purpose is improving helicopter safety. The seminal meeting was the first International Helicopter Safety Symposium (IHSS), hosted in Montreal by the American Helicopter Society International (AHS), Helicopter Association International (HAI), and AHS Montreal/Ottawa Chapter. At this meeting, participants made a compelling case for change. For instance, the worldwide number of helicopter accidents has remained relatively constant at around 600 per year. The United States, which comprises about half of the worldwide fleet of rotorcraft, accounts for about 40 percent of the annual accidents—or about 180-200. Based on these numbers and the desire to do better, participants achieved agreement to form the IHST.

Early on, the IHST membership strongly agreed that work to improve helicopter safety must follow three basic tenets that are so successful with CAST:

- Solutions must be data driven, i.e., based on actual accident data.

- Helicopter community stakeholders must perform the analyses.

- Performance of recommended safety improvements must be measurable.

The key to success is examining and understanding accident data. For example, two thirds of the 2001 U.S. accidents were in part 91 operations. The majority of these accidents occurred during personal/private flying and instructional/training operations, with EMS operations in a not-too-distant third place. Based on the data, we know the top accident categories were loss of control, auto rotations, and system-component failures. The main causes were attributed to poor pilot judgment and actions, lack of safety management systems, and inadequate pilot situational awareness.

This tells us we can do better. IHST, which includes international partners and members from helicopter operators, manufacturers, maintenance organizations, as well as regulatory and accident investigation agencies, set an ambitious goal: Reduce all helicopter accidents by 80 percent by 2016.

The IHST approach is working. Here’s how. IHST has one group that analyzes accident/incident

data and another group that develops prioritized interventions based on the data analysis. The worldwide data reviewed includes the full range of helicopter design types—from small reciprocating engine helicopters to large multi-engine turbine types. The analysis team also addresses the varied missions flown by helicopters in conjunction with the wide spectrum of operators, from single helicopter operators to large companies with complex organizations.

We’re finding common themes across the community. We are close to developing the ten top accident causes/causal areas, which, in turn, will help us focus our intervention strategies. Here’s an example. We already know there are too many accidents involving helicopters that provide emergency medical transport. Yet, further study shows that the accidents are more frequent during the repositioning of the helicopter, not during the actual transport of the patient to the hospital. This is a crucial piece of information in designing the intervention that will make the biggest difference for safety. For one, it focuses our attention on the existing regulations and the need for implementing a safety management system and risk management procedures for large and small EMS helicopter operators.

In another example, we know that leading factors in accidents—especially for helicopters operating under part 91 in personal/private flying and in instructional/training flying—are loss of control and the inability to control the helicopter during an autorotation. This guides the workgroup as it develops interventions that could take us back to the basics: Reviewing Practical Test Standards, knowledge test questions, and advisory material. This could lead to changes to training and testing standards with a sharpened focus on autorotations and loss of control, aeronautical decision-making training, and improved access to helicopter

simulators and flight-training devices.

Yes, knowledge is power. The knowledge that the IHST is gaining about the “whats” and “whys” of helicopter incidents and accidents is going a long way to inform safety professionals on how to more effectively prevent accidents and save lives. It doesn’t get any more important than that.

Mark Schilling, acting manager of the FAA’s Rotorcraft Directorate, co-chairs the IHST with Matt Zuccaro, president of HAI.