Sector safety performance: larger helicopters

Between 2014 and 2021, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) received 730 occurrence reports for this sector occurring in Australia.

The ATSB classified 5 as an accident in the medical transport operations category. None were fatal. You can find a breakdown of occurrences across larger helicopter non-schedule passenger flights including offshore and medical transport in the following table.

Source: Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE), ATSB occurrence database

Please note: BITRE data is only available for this sector up to 2021. This means we couldn’t include safety performance data for 2022 in the rates.

Accidents per million flying hours

Similar to BITRE, the ATSB safety occurrence data does not include all for offshore operations. It does not segregate data from other non-scheduled helicopter operations within this sector.

We analysed medical transport operations separately. Figure 4 identifies the rate of accidents, serious incidents, and incidents per million flying hours from 2014-2021 within this sector. Across all three occurrence types an increasing trend is apparent.

Enlarge image

When comparing the occurrence rates for medical transport and non-scheduled helicopter operations within Australia, medical transport had a much higher rate of accidents and incidents. In discussion at the SSRP workshop, operators cited the 'unpredictability'of the operation being a factor. Night, weather, and other parties involved in the operation to ensure best patient outcomes could all be factors in causing unpredictability.