Recently, the average fatal accident rate per 100,000 flight hours has fallen. It was 0.69 from 2019 to 23, and fell to 0.62 between 2020 and 2024. It's probably the limit, but it's important that the trend is positive. What do you think is the main driver behind this drop?
USHST's Lee Roskop and FAA Aviation Safety Coordinator (Rotorcraft) have compiled the year-end accident data. The trends are positive, but we still have a lot to do.
Summary of the previous fiscal year 2025 (2025) (October to December 2024)
FY25 Total: 17 accidents, 5 fatal accidents, 12 deaths
Accidents (including both fatal and non-fatal accidents):
The estimated accident rate for FY25 was 2.51 per 100,000 hours for OCT-DEC (30% lower than the same period in FY24 and 30% lower than the five-year average for the same period).
Fatal accident:
FY25 estimated OCT-DEC fatal accident rates were 0.74 per 100,000 hours (24% higher than the same period in 2024, 2% lower than the five-year average for the same period).
Deaths:
The estimated fatality rate for FY25 was 1.77 per 100,000 hours for OCT-DEC (98% higher than the same period in 2024 and 28% higher than the five-year average for the same period).
USHST Calendar Year (CY) Metric
The end of December 2024 marked the end of USHST's latest fifth year target period (January 1, 2020 – December 31, 2024).
USHST's 2020-24 target: By 2025, we will reduce the average fatality rate over five years to 0.55 per 100,000 hours.
USHST's 2020-24 target: By 2025, we will reduce the average fatality rate over five years to 0.55 per 100,000 hours.
Based on the predicted FAA times for CY2024, the estimated five-year average fatality rate for CYS 2020-24 was 0.62 per 100,000 hours.
The annual rate per 100,000 hours over the five years progressed as follows:
2020: 0.79 2021: 0.76 2022: 0.58 2023: 0.58 2024: 0.44.
The one-year rate for CY2024 of 0.44 was the lowest flight time in 25 calendar years in available records, and 14% lower than the next lowest rate (0.51 in 2016). The CY2024 rate will be confirmed after the results of the 2024 FAA General Aviation Survey are confirmed (predicted in the second half of 2025).
For many years used in calculating the final rate, USHST used helicopter accidents that met the following criteria:
US registered aircraft (including offshore) operated on US/US territory.
