IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reensy/v180y2018icp373-384.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Epidemiology of helicopter accidents: Trends, rates, and covariates

Author

Listed:
  • Churchwell, Jared S.
  • Zhang, Katherine S.
  • Saleh, Joseph H.

Abstract

The objective of this work is to provide a better understanding of helicopter accidents and to identify important areas for different stakeholders to focus their attention and resources for accident prevention. To this end, we undertook Record Linkage of two federal data sources: the FAA civil helicopter registration data and the NTSB accident data. First, the analysis of accident rates and trends shows little progress in accident prevention over the last decade. Second, we find that helicopter accident rates vary significantly by number of main rotor blades, with the four- and six-bladed helicopters having the safest track record. Third, we show that accident rates vary by engine types when controlling for the number of blades. For example, the combination of reciprocating engine and three-bladed (3B) helicopters is associated with one of the highest accident rates. We further examine differences in accident rates between single and twin-engine helicopters, controlling for engine type and number of blades. The worst-in-class in terms of rates are the 5B and 6B single-engine turboshaft helicopters, whereas the worst-offenders in terms of contributing to the total count of accidents are the single-engine 2B reciprocating and turboshaft helicopters. The 4B single-engine turboshaft occupy a safety sweet spot and have the lowest accident rates of all single-engine helicopters. We provide risk ratios for pairwise comparisons and 95% confidence intervals for all accident rates, and discuss possible confounders for these results. The issues here examined lend themselves to a rich set of technical and operational implications, and they deserve careful attention from helicopter operators, regulators, and manufacturers. Any serious effort to improve helicopter safety will entail action on multiple safety levers, including design, operational, and policy-related ones. These actions should be evidence-based and they require better helicopter accident investigations and better data.

Suggested Citation

  • Churchwell, Jared S. & Zhang, Katherine S. & Saleh, Joseph H., 2018. "Epidemiology of helicopter accidents: Trends, rates, and covariates," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 373-384.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:180:y:2018:i:c:p:373-384
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2018.08.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832017310542
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ress.2018.08.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saleh, J.H. & Marais, K.B. & Bakolas, E. & Cowlagi, R.V., 2010. "Highlights from the literature on accident causation and system safety: Review of major ideas, recent contributions, and challenges," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1105-1116.
    2. Marais, Karen B. & Robichaud, Matthew R., 2012. "Analysis of trends in aviation maintenance risk: An empirical approach," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 104-118.
    3. Jan-Erik Vinnem, 2014. "Offshore Risk Assessment vol 2," Springer Series in Reliability Engineering, Springer, edition 3, number 978-1-4471-5213-2, September.
    4. Jan-Erik Vinnem, 2014. "Offshore Risk Assessment vol 1," Springer Series in Reliability Engineering, Springer, edition 3, number 978-1-4471-5207-1, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xu, Zhaoyi & Saleh, Joseph Homer & Subagia, Rachmat, 2020. "Machine learning for helicopter accident analysis using supervised classification: Inference, prediction, and implications," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    2. Martin Folch-Calvo & Francisco Brocal-Fernández & Cristina González-Gaya & Miguel A. Sebastián, 2020. "Analysis and Characterization of Risk Methodologies Applied to Industrial Parks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-35, September.
    3. IAIANI, Matteo & TUGNOLI, Alessandro & BONVICINI, Sarah & COZZANI, Valerio, 2021. "Analysis of Cybersecurity-related Incidents in the Process Industry," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    4. Iaiani, Matteo & Casson Moreno, Valeria & Reniers, Genserik & Tugnoli, Alessandro & Cozzani, Valerio, 2021. "Analysis of events involving the intentional release of hazardous substances from industrial facilities," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    5. Rachmat Subagia & Joseph Homer Saleh & Jared S Churchwell & Katherine S Zhang, 2020. "Statistical learning for turboshaft helicopter accidents using logistic regression," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yuan Yang, 2019. "Reforming Health, Safety, and Environmental Regulation for Offshore Operations in China: Risk and Resilience Approaches?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-13, May.
    2. Bani-Mustafa, Tasneem & Flage, Roger & Vasseur, Dominique & Zeng, Zhiguo & Zio, Enrico, 2020. "An extended method for evaluating assumptions deviations in quantitative risk assessment and its application to external flooding risk assessment of a nuclear power plant," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    3. Tsagkas, Vassilis & Nathanael, Dimitris & Marmaras, Nicolas, 2014. "A pragmatic mapping of factors behind deviating acts in aircraft maintenance," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 106-114.
    4. Utne, Ingrid Bouwer & Rokseth, Børge & Sørensen, Asgeir J. & Vinnem, Jan Erik, 2020. "Towards supervisory risk control of autonomous ships," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    5. Miriam Andrejiova & Anna Grincova & Daniela Marasova & Peter Koščák, 2021. "Civil Aviation Occurrences in Slovakia and Their Evaluation Using Statistical Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-17, May.
    6. Berner, C. & Flage, R., 2016. "Strengthening quantitative risk assessments by systematic treatment of uncertain assumptions," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 46-59.
    7. Konstandinidou, Myrto & Nivolianitou, Zoe & Kefalogianni, Eirini & Caroni, Chrys, 2011. "In-depth analysis of the causal factors of incidents reported in the Greek petrochemical industry," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1448-1455.
    8. Faiella, Giuliana & Parand, Anam & Franklin, Bryony Dean & Chana, Prem & Cesarelli, Mario & Stanton, Neville A. & Sevdalis, Nick, 2018. "Expanding healthcare failure mode and effect analysis: A composite proactive risk analysis approach," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 117-126.
    9. Saleh, Joseph H. & Saltmarsh, Elizabeth A. & Favarò, Francesca M. & Brevault, Loïc, 2013. "Accident precursors, near misses, and warning signs: Critical review and formal definitions within the framework of Discrete Event Systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 148-154.
    10. Zhou, Di & Zhuang, Xiao & Zuo, Hongfu & Cai, Jing & Zhao, Xufeng & Xiang, Jiawei, 2022. "A model fusion strategy for identifying aircraft risk using CNN and Att-BiLSTM," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    11. J. S. Busby & A. M. Collins, 2014. "Organizational Sensemaking About Risk Controls: The Case of Offshore Hydrocarbons Production," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(9), pages 1738-1752, September.
    12. Wu, Chao & Huang, Lang, 2019. "A new accident causation model based on information flow and its application in Tianjin Port fire and explosion accident," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 73-85.
    13. Zhang, Weibin & Feng, Xinyu & Goerlandt, Floris & Liu, Qing, 2020. "Towards a Convolutional Neural Network model for classifying regional ship collision risk levels for waterway risk analysis," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    14. Kontogiannis, Tom & Malakis, Stathis, 2012. "A systemic analysis of patterns of organizational breakdowns in accidents: A case from Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) operations," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 193-208.
    15. Raghvendra V. Cowlagi & Joseph H. Saleh, 2013. "Coordinability and Consistency in Accident Causation and Prevention: Formal System Theoretic Concepts for Safety in Multilevel Systems," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(3), pages 420-433, March.
    16. Rachmat Subagia & Joseph Homer Saleh & Jared S Churchwell & Katherine S Zhang, 2020. "Statistical learning for turboshaft helicopter accidents using logistic regression," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, January.
    17. Bakolas, Efstathios & Saleh, Joseph H., 2011. "Augmenting defense-in-depth with the concepts of observability and diagnosability from Control Theory and Discrete Event Systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 184-193.
    18. Favarò, Francesca M. & Saleh, Joseph H., 2016. "Toward risk assessment 2.0: Safety supervisory control and model-based hazard monitoring for risk-informed safety interventions," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 316-330.
    19. Foreman, Veronica L. & Favaró, Francesca M. & Saleh, Joseph H. & Johnson, Christopher W., 2015. "Software in military aviation and drone mishaps: Analysis and recommendations for the investigation process," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 101-111.
    20. Milch, Vibeke & Laumann, Karin, 2019. "The influence of interorganizational factors on offshore incidents in the Norwegian petroleum industry: Challenges and future directions," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 84-96.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:180:y:2018:i:c:p:373-384. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/reliability-engineering-and-system-safety .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.