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) has issued an urgent warning about a worsening helicopter accident rate, citing seven fatalities from four "routine" general aviation/private crashes in a single week.
The IHST identifies the core problem as a lack of critical risk assessment and mitigation by pilots and operators, particularly during flights perceived as standard or low-risk, rather than during treacherous missions.
The organization is calling for an immediate "culture change" within the private helicopter community, urging a refocus on evaluating and mitigating risks related to factors like weather, night flying, fatigue, and stress on every flight.

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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: