Health and Safety Report 2019

HEALTH & SAFETY REPORT 2019

4.4 Accident Analysis

A breakdown of reportable accident causes from 1997 to 2018 is provided in the following charts. 10 As 2018 was an incident-free year, the data below are unchanged from last year.

From 1997 to 2018, operational causes (flight and ground) accounted for 35 per cent of accidents, 40 per cent were due to technical failures and 25 per cent caused by external factors.

All the operational accidents that occurred during flight were attributed to pilot error. Eighty-seven per cent of the technical failures were attributed to dynamic component failures (main rotor gear box, main rotor blade and tail rotor). A structural issue accounts for the remaining 13 per cent.

For the 25 per cent of accidents due to external factors, all resulted from weather-related events, including four lightning strikes and an encounter with a water spout.

Figure 30: Breakdown of Reportable Accident Causes, 1997 to 2018

Operational Accidents

Technical Accidents

System/ComponentFailureor Malfunction (Non-Powerplant) (SCF- NP), 1

Structure, 1

Tail Rotor, 2

Unknown,1

Main Rotor Gear Box, 3

ControlledFlight into Terrain (CFIT), 3

Abnormal Runway Contact (ARC), 1

Primary Accident Causes, 1997-201 8

Main Rotor, 2

Collision with Obstacle During Take-Off and Landing (CTOL), 1

GroundHandling (RAMP),1

Opera onal, 8

Technical, 8

External, 5

External Accidents

WaterSpout, 1

Lightning Strike, 4

Source:O G UK

10 For accident events to be identified using a recognised international code, categorisation and causation follows the International Civil Aviation Organisation/Commercial Aviation Safety Team Common Taxonomy Team Taxonomy. Operational (F) = an event related to the helicopter while in flight or abnormal contact with terrain Operational (G) = an event related to the helicopter while on the ground.

Technical = an event involving system/component failure or malfunction, fire/smoke. External = an event involving icing, turbulence, wind shear, thunderstorm or bird strike.

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