The U.S. civil helicopter accident rate continues to fall and the industry just posted its second safest July in more than 30 years, according to data released August 31 from the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST). Overall, the accident rate for civil helicopters declined in the U.S. for the first six months of 2016 compared to the rate posted for the full year of 2015, falling to 3.28 per 100,000 flight hours compared with 3.73 in 2015, it said.
However, the fatal accident rate showed a mild uptick to 0.54 per 100,000 flight hours for the first six months of the year compared to 0.52 for all of 2015. The USHST noted that these numbers were well within the organization's goal of a fatal accident rate of 0.73 per 100,000 flight hours or lower for all of this year and an overall reduction of the fatal accident rate to 0.61 per 100,000 flight hours by 2019.
The USHST also pointed out that July is traditionally the worst month of the year for accidents, but that this July had been the second safest in 34 years, with just 13 total accidents and two fatal accidents reported, as opposed to a July average of 19 accidents.