Spate of Helicopter Crashes Signals Need for ‘Culture Change’

Stephen Pope

Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 09:21 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST) is calling for an immediate "culture change" due to a recent increase in helicopter accidents, noting the problem is worsening despite their goal to cut the accident rate by 80% by 2016.
The warning follows four deadly helicopter crashes within a single week (Oct 10-17), which killed seven people during "routine" general aviation/private flights.
The IHST emphasizes that these tragedies are not due to perilous missions, but rather a critical failure by pilots and the helicopter community to assess and mitigate risks in seemingly standard, low-risk flights.
A refocus on risk assessment for factors like night flying, weather, fatigue, and stress is required to improve safety practices and prevent further accidents.

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The International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST), a government-industry cooperative effort to cut the helicopter accident rate by 80 percent by 2016, is calling for an immediate “culture change” to stem a problem that appears to be growing worse instead of better.

The IHST issued its warning after four deadly helicopter crashes occurred this month in the span of a week. From Oct. 10 to Oct 17, the U.S. helicopter community experienced the spate of accidents, each of which started out as “routine” general aviation/private flights, but ended with tragic results. Here is a rundown of what we know about each: