Article published in 4Rotors in August 2011

Accidents happen! Sadly, too many of them happen – but why? More importantly, what can be done to prevent the next helicopter (and the occupants) following the same path to disaster as those that have gone before?

4Rotors has been kind enough before to allow the European Helicopter Safety Team (EHEST) space to explain how we went about the task of identifying common themes from all 311 accidents analyzed by the Regional Teams; for those that have yet to see the results, the Final Report is available online1.

As part of the International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST) initiative, EHEST has one simple objective: to reduce the helicopter accident rate by 80 percent by 2016 worldwide, with emphasis on improving European safety. Simple on paper but a significant task in reality.

With the top causal categories identified the hard work began to identify control measures to prevent recurrence and this hard work is now delivering usable (and free) tools to help operators mitigate the risks they face in their respective areas.

In developing these tools, it was clear that one size does not fit all and the risks associated for a fire-fighting operator are very different from those of a General Aviation pilot on a ‘pleasure flight’ from A to B on a sunny afternoon. Therefore, the ways of controlling those risks will differ. However, some of the core issues remain common no matter what the reason for getting airborne.

What the EHEST initiative cannot provide is a ‘magic cure’; improving the safety of the helicopter community in Europe comes from raising awareness and from getting people to stop and think about what they are doing, as well as how they are doing it.

If a pilot is not qualified to fly IFR what tempts some of those to ‘give it a go’? In other cases they don’t mean to go IMC without suitable training/qualifications, they simply get ‘caught out’; but if pre-flight planning had been more comprehensive they might well have known that the weather through which they had to pass was going to be marginal at best.

Raising awareness through training material will hopefully help and EHEST’s Specialist Team on training has developed a video on the subject. This is just one of many awareness and information products developed by the team (all volunteers and all with a wealth of experience in the training role). The language barrier is another hurdle we must cross and so many of the products have been (or will be) translated into the key languages of Europe.

The communication challenge now is making people aware of the fact that this information is out there and using the vast network of helicopter operators in Europe to ‘spread the word’. I don’t think for a second that anyone involved in helicopter operations wants to see another accident happen to one of their fellow aviators – but are they willing to do that extra bit to help pro-actively prevent it?

The new European Helicopter Association does much to support the EHEST initiative and is an outlet that will be used more in the future to reach the smaller operators; for the larger operators, European Helicopter Operators Committee (EHOC) plays a key role, and the major manufacturers have also all allowed their Technical Bulletins to be used as a launch pad for EHEST information.

However, there are still vast areas of the helicopter community in Europe who have not heard of EHEST and who therefore don’t know what they can do to help achieve the aim. Ironically, those areas that are yet to be ‘touched’ by the EHEST message are amongst those who featured significantly in the 311 accidents that informed the work ongoing now.

To help overcome this communication challenge, a new website is being developed by the EASA members of EHEST; the website aims to provide a one-stop shop for all of the material produced and will have a variety of links to other useful references.

For some, the introduction of legislation that will require certain operators to have a functioning Safety Management System will soon be a reality. Regulation has a role to play in reducing the accident rate and there is a Specialist Team looking at how EHEST can provide input to that regulatory process in order to act on the evidence of the analysis done. However, whilst Regulation can set the boundaries, the real change will come when individuals, training organizations and helicopter clubs/associations want to do things differently simply because they know it’s the right thing to do to prevent needless loss of lives, livelihood and (expensive) equipment.

Whilst the thought of creating an SMS for a relatively small operation may seem daunting it needn’t be so and it’s got to be time well spent if it prevents an accident. To assist, the Specialist Team for SMS and Ops is developing a template and supporting material to make it easier for those with fewer resources and less experience in the SMS principles; details will be on the website soon. Their work builds on the SMS Toolkit developed by the IHST team in the States and this highlights the importance of International cooperation.

It’s little surprise that the mistakes (and they are more often mistakes than willful violations) being made in helicopters across Europe are broadly the same ones being made in Australia, Brazil, the USA, the Gulf, China and Russia (to name just a few of the areas of the world covered by the IHST initiative). To that end, EHEST will be participating at the forthcoming International Helicopter Safety Symposium 2011 in Fort Worth, Texas which provides the opportunity to share the work being done in Europe as well as ‘borrowing’ good ideas from others.

There are a variety of European events throughout the year where helicopter operators, owners, maintainers, and trainers meet. Large events (like airshows) tend to attract large operators and whilst they still have some work to do on maintaining/enhancing safety standards, it is the smaller operator and GA community that offers the biggest savings (of lives as well as money) in terms of accident reduction.

Participation by EHEST volunteers at any event where smaller operators might be is a key way of passing on the message. So if you know of an event, or have an idea on how we can get the message across, let me know. Better still, get in touch, join the team and help us achieve the aim.

Download the article in pdf: 4Rotors August 2011

Duncan Trapp, Communications Sub-Group Leader, EHEST