SAFETY SITREP Safety-Related Information and Resources from the Vertical Aviation Safety Team
A PROPOSAL FOR A HELICOPTER SAFETY RATING SCHEME
By VAST Safety Rating Concept Working Group
The establishment of the Vertical Aviation Safety Team (VAST) in 2021 facilitated the opportunity to create a dedicated working group to study a proof of concept for a helicopter safety rating scheme. This two-year effort required monthly meetings with periodic face-to-face meetings of a group of diverse members representing regulators, operators, OEMs, a bow-tie specialist, and industry groups, all with differing agendas – and all volunteers.
The working group looked to existing rating schemes to help inform a potential path for such a scheme in an industry that is extremely diverse and complex, and that has the ability to change missions literally on the fly. There are many challenges to applying a rating scheme concept to our industry, but the working group was able to put boundaries around what could be included, and it developed a system of rating items that is related to the survivability and avoidance of an event.
To make their scheme useful, it was decided that the
helicopter had to be evaluated in the operational
How do we incentivize installation of systems and equipment having safety benefits in the current fleet? How do we create a positive dynamic to enhance safety? Are there successful initiatives in other industries that could inspire the rotorcraft community?
A rating system for helicopters has been a point of discussion for years. In the mid-2010s, three entities articulated interest in the research and potential development of a rating system. The 2018 European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Rotorcraft Safety Roadmap published several streams with a 2028 target of a 50% reduction in accidents. Rating the safety of mostly light/CS-27 helicopters was among those streams. In early 2019, the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers’ Aviation Subcommittee (IOGP-ASC) and HeliOffshore coordinated the proposition for a rating system for medium/heavy helicopters. In December 2020, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) produced the white paper “FAA Rotorcraft Safety Rating Concept for Design and Equipment” that also outlined the possible development and use of a rating system as a possible way to help reduce rotorcraft accidents.
16 Sept/Oct 2024
environment where it was working. (It makes sense that floats would enhance a rating for operations over or near large bodies of water, but it doesn’t make much sense to add or take away from a helicopter’s rating based on those same floats in a desert environment.) Besides equipage, the group was also challenged with a system where helicopters certified under Part 27 and Part 29 have substantial differences, low turnover rate of the existing global fleet, a cost of crash testing (which the group decided was not a necessity) potential bias towards newer aircraft, and issues with simply getting everyone to agree on what and how to rate items. However, in a world where automobiles can have new and novel safety enhancing equipment released or improved almost every year, it seemed like there should be a way to drive some of that technology into the aviation world. The benefits of trying and succeeding to help drive this scheme could be a game-changer — if done thoughtfully and properly.
A soon-to-be-released white paper will present their work on this proof of concept to the industry. The group recognizes that it is a concept, and that follow-on work will be required before the scheme can be proposed for implementation. The working group gave presentations at Heli-Expo 2024, and will offer them next at the EASA European Rotorcraft and VTOL Safety Symposium 2024 as well as Verticon 2025.
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