VAI/Dianne Bond Photo The Safety Dividend The US helicopter industry posts its safest record in 25 years. By Mark Huber Helicopter flying achieved record safety last year. And that’s no accident. In 2024, the US helicopter industry posted its lowest number of fatal accidents and its lowest rate of fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours in 25 years. The reasons why are many. More companies offer flight data monitoring hardware, software, and analysis to augment operators’ safety management systems, and autopilots and stability augmentation systems are now standard equipment on various light helicopter models. Virtual- and augmented-reality simulation reduce the cost of and increase the effectiveness of training. Perhaps most important, the vertical aviation community is increasingly embracing a structured safety culture. At a US Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) All-Hands Seminar presented at VERTICON 2025 in Dallas, Texas, this past March, FAA aviation safety coordinator Lee Roskop presented a slew of data that, on the whole, showed improved safety performance by US helicopter operations (see chart below). 2024 Safety Stats for US Fatal Helicopter Accidents The figures above represent data collected by the FAA and include all accidents that occurred in the United States (including offshore operations) by US-registered helicopters. All rates are per 100,000 flight hours. The fatal accident rate has been steadily declining since 2020, when it was 0.79; the 2024 rate was 0.44 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours. The total count of 13 fatal accidents for the year was the lowest in the past 25 years. Roskop called the results “pretty amazing numbers.” There were only 4 fatal accidents in the first 6 months of the year and 10 months when there were either zero or only 1 fatal accident. In 2024, from Feb. 9 to Apr. 26, no fatal accidents occurred; that 76-day streak was the longest period without a fatal accident since a 107-day run in 2020. The fatality rate of 1.02 per 100,000 flight hours was 24% lower than the previous 5-year average and 17% lower than the previous 10-year average. The overall fatality count of 30 was comparable to the best years on record, 2015 and 2016, when 28 were recorded each year. Roskop noted that 20% (6) of 2024’s fatalities occurred in just 1 accident and that 6 of the 13 fatal accidents had at least 3 fatalities. The overall accident rate, including both fatal and nonfatal events, of 2.99 per 100,000 flight hours was also the lowest in 25 years and only the third time during the period when the rate dipped below 3.5. The overall number of accidents, 88, was the second-lowest on record in 25 years and 13% lower than the 101 accidents recorded in 2023. The graphic above also lists the leading causes of fatal accidents, which continue to be loss of control in flight, striking objects during low-altitude operations, and unintended flight into instrument meteorological conditions (UIMC). As an example of efforts to reduce these numbers further, Chris Baur, USHST industry cochair, points to a recent USHST/FAA Rotorcraft Collective video, “Recognize the Early Signs of an Undesired Aircraft State,” available at tinyurl.com/mr3aymez, that discusses loss of control in flight. Perhaps most interesting, Roskop noted, was that the fatal accident rate for Part 135 commercial operators, 0.46 per 100,000 flight hours, exceeded the rate for Part 91 operations, 0.34 per 100,000 flight hours. Roskop called that “pretty remarkable.” “The 2024 numbers provided us with welcome news about the US helicopter industry’s improved safety performance, but I’m concerned that the fatal accident rate for Part 135 operators now exceeds that for Part 91 operations,” says Baur. “I encourage POWER UP readers to join the USHST at ushst.org and familiarize themselves with the innovative and free safety products and services available. “Please advocate for enhanced safety—whether in your personal performance, in your organization, or as a resource for the helicopter community,” says Baur. “These statistics demonstrate that our efforts can make a difference.” Going forward, the USHST has set ambitious goals to improve vertical aviation safety. According to Baur, these include the industry’s first dedicated Peer Pilot Program (see “Are You Mentally Fit to Fly?”) and increasing access to aviation weather cameras and robust COPTER IFR solutions. The safety dividend revealed in the 2024 data is real and measurable. And it’s yours for the taking. Mark Huber is an aviation journalist with more than two decades of experience in the vertical flight industry.
