FAA Issues Final Rule to Improve Helicopter
Safety.
I would like to share this actual and important
information for all Helicopter Pilots, my interest is to promote Aviation
Safety , not only Pilots who fly airplanes , this final rule is to persuade
Helicopters Pilots to fly
safe all the time, planning and shaping a good flight is the Key to avoid accidents .
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of
Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today issued a final
rule that requires helicopter operators, including air ambulances, to have
stricter flight rules and procedures, improved communications, training, and
additional on-board safety equipment. The rule represents the most significant
improvements to helicopter safety in decades and responds to government’s and
industry’s concern over continued risk in helicopter operations.
“This is a landmark rule for helicopter
safety,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “These improvements will
better prepare pilots and better equip helicopters, ensuring a higher level of safety
for passengers and crew.”
All U.S. helicopter operators, including air
ambulances, are required to use stricter flying procedures in bad weather. This
will provide a greater margin of safety by reducing the probability of
collisions with terrain, obstacles or other aircraft.
Within 60 days, all operators will be required
to use enhanced procedures for flying in challenging weather, at night, and
when landing in remote locations. Within three years, helicopter air ambulances
must use the latest on-board technology and equipment to avoid terrain and
obstacles, and within four years, they must be equipped with flight data
monitoring systems.
“This rule is a significant advancement in
helicopter safety,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. “This rule will help
reduce risk and help pilots make good safety decisions through the use of
better training, procedures, and equipment.”
Under the new rule, all Part 135 helicopter
operators are required to:
Equip their helicopters with radio altimeters.
Have occupants wear life preservers and equip
helicopters with a 406 MHz Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) when a
helicopter is operated beyond power-off glide distance from the shore.
Use higher weather minimums when identifying an
alternate airport in a flight plan.
Require that pilots are tested to handle
flat-light, whiteout, and brownout conditions and demonstrate competency in
recovery from an inadvertent encounter with instrument meteorological
conditions.
In addition, under the new rule, all air ambulance
operators are required to:
Equip with Helicopter Terrain Awareness and
Warning Systems (HTAWS).
Equip with a flight data monitoring system
within four years.
Establish operations control centers if they
are certificate holders with 10 or more helicopter air ambulances.
Institute pre-flight risk-analysis programs.
Ensure their pilots in command hold an
instrument rating.
Ensure pilots identify and document the highest
obstacle along the planned route before departure.
Comply with Visual Flight Rules (VFR) weather
minimums, Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations at airports/heliports
without weather reporting, procedures for VFR approaches, and VFR flight
planning.
Conduct the flight using Part 135 weather
requirements and flight crew time limitation and rest requirements when medical
personnel are on board.
Conduct safety briefings or training for
medical personnel.
Since August 2004, the FAA has promoted
initiatives to reduce risk for helicopter air ambulance operations (See FAA
Fact Sheet). While accidents did decline in the years following that effort,
2008 proved to be the deadliest year on record with five accidents that claimed
21 lives. The FAA examined helicopter air ambulance accidents from 1991 through
2010 and determined 62 accidents that claimed 125 lives could have been
mitigated by today's rule. While developing the rule, the FAA considered 20
commercial helicopter accidents from 1991 through 2010 (excluding air
ambulances) that resulted in 39 fatalities. From 2011 through 2013, there were
seven air ambulance accidents resulting in 19 fatalities and seven commercial
helicopter accidents that claimed 20 lives.
The estimated cost of the final rule in present
value for the air ambulance industry is $224 million with a total benefit of
$347 million over 10 years. The cost for other commercial operators is $19
million with a total benefit of $83 million over 10 years. There is no cost for
any operators to use new Class G airspace weather minimums for visual flying
but the benefit is $147 million over 10 years.
The rule responds to the FAA Modernization and
Reform Act of 2012 and National Transportation Safety Board recommendations.
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