Chapter Review

In this chapter some of the ways in which handling qualities can degrade have been discussed, and methodologies for taking them into account are outlined. What should be clear to the reader from the ideas and results presented is that the pilot’s task can become very difficult if the visual cues degrade, if flight systems fail or when strong atmospheric disturbances are encountered; the risk to safety and the likelihood of an accident increase in such situations. If such degradations happen quickly and are unforeseen, taking the pilot by surprise, then the risk further increases. With a good understanding of the degrading mechanisms, appropriate design criteria, more stringent operational procedures and the availability of safety-related technologies, for both new and old aircraft, there seems to be no good reason, apart from cost, why all existing and new helicopters cannot be made more ‘accident proof’. At the time of writing, this goal is being pursued in an international initiative, stimulated partly by the revelations of a comprehensive analysis of US civil helicopter accidents over a 40-year period by Harris et al. (Ref. 8.65), summarized in the 2006 AHS Nikolsky Lecture (Ref. 8.66) – No Accidents – That’s the Objective. In the 40-year period from 1964, the US civil helicopter accident rate per 100 000 flying hours decreased from 65 in 1966 to 11 in 2004; these data relate to a total number of accidents i. e., 10 410 in the period, where nearly 2700 people lost their lives. The accident rate per 1000 aircraft has also decreased substantially over this period – 120 in 1964 to 12 in 2005. However, the helicopter accident rate is still about an order of magnitude greater than the fixed – wing aircraft accident rate. Challenging the oft-made point that safety improvements are uneconomical, Harris presents data showing that the cost of one accident is about 1 million US dollars, so that the total cost to the Industry over the 40-year period has been about 11 billion US dollars. More than three quarters of this relates to insurance claims.

Figure 8.63 summarizes the distribution of US civil rotorcraft accidents presented by Harris (Ref. 8.66). The data show that loss of control is a growing problem; with 1114 in total, less than 10% were in this category in 1964 but greater than 20% in 2005,

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making loss of control equal the number one contributor to accidents, alongside loss of engine power. In-flight collision with objects (including wires, poles, trees, but not the surface) has reduced as a cause, but a total of 1322 accidents in this category over the period highlights the problem that pilots too often bump into things and the helicopter is very unforgiving to such. The surface collision accidents are contained in the lower 30% ‘mixed-bag’ in Fig. 8.63, so details are unclear, but it is likely, based on more dedicated studies (e. g., Ref. 8.4, 8.67), that the proportion in this category, where loss of visual cues is a major factor, will be significant.

The safety initiative referred to above, led by the International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST), was launched at the AHS Safety Symposium in Montreal in September 2005 (Ref. 8.68), where a commitment was made to reduce the helicopter accident rate by 80%, from 8.09 to 1.62 per 100 000 flying hours, within 10 years. The activity is being modelled on the US Commercial Aircraft Safety Team (CAST) programme, which had set a similar goal for fixed-wing aircraft accidents in the mid-1990s. While it might seem unusual to describe such contemporary initiatives in a textbook, it is considered by the author that this activity is vitally important to the helicopter industry and to the theme of this chapter. IHST has defined a three-stage process summarized as follows: conduct data analysis, set safety priorities and integrate safety enhance­ments. A substantial number of operators, regulators and manufacturers worldwide have signed up to the master plan summarized in three components (Ref. 8.69):

‘IHSTMission: To provide government, industry and operator leadership to develop and focus implementation of an integrated, data-driven strategy to improve helicopter aviation safety worldwide, both military and civil IHST Vision: To achieve the highest levels of safety in the international helicopter communities by focusing on appropriate initiatives prioritized to result in the greatest improvement in helicopter aviation safety IHST Goal: To reduce the helicopter aviation accident rate by 80 percent by 2016’

The IHST was consolidated at the 62nd Annual Forum of the AHS in May 2006 (Ref. 8.69), where a number of participants reported on analysis conducted to date. Cross, in Ref. 8.70, examined the potential impact on safety of various mitigating technologies, noting that the airline industry had made significant improvements in its safety record through the introduction of, for example, damage-tolerant/fail-safe designs, extensive use of simulators in flight training, safety management systems and quality assurance to reduce human errors, flight data monitoring programs, disciplined take-off and landing profiles (e. g., stabilized approach), digital flight management systems to reduce pilot workload, improved situational awareness, help to cope with emergencies, improved one-engine-inoperative performance and various terrain/collision avoidance systems. Specifically, Cross drew the conclusion that more than 50% of accidents were pre­ventable with a combination of enhanced handling, conferred by meeting modern FAR standards, and improved pilot training.