Night Helicopter Flying Calls for More Experience

The U.S. Helicopter Safety Team on December 1 reminded pilots that more hours of winter darkness traditionally translate into an increase in accidents. The trend shows that pilots on night flights need to take every precaution to ensure their safety and the safety of their passengers.

Six years of safety data from 938 U.S. helicopter accidents shows that more than half of all civil helicopter accidents occurring at night involve pilots with less than 100 hours of night flight experience. In addition, pilots with less than 500 hours of night operations experience are involved in 78 percent of nighttime accidents. For non-emergency operations, less nighttime experience equals more accidents; in the emergency operations sector more nighttime experience equals few accidents. However, in large part, this is due to the fact that most pilots flying these emergency missions have accumulated considerable night flight experience in challenging conditions. But the data also illustrates that even the most experienced pilots can have accidents in nighttime conditions. Private flying and instructional operations are especially susceptible to night accidents.

The International Helicopter Safety Team offers two bulletins related to visibility, “Inadvertent Entry into Cloud or Fog” and “Visibility: The Minimum You Should Know.”