The International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST) was formed in 2005 with the goal of reducing worldwide helicopter accidents by 80 percent by 2016. That translates into an overall accident rate of 1.9 per 100,000 flight hours, or the elimination of 1,700 accidents and 1,100 fatalities.
Since its inception, the IHST and its subsidiary groups have been analyzing accidents and using that data to develop safety-related “tool kits” geared to small and medium helicopter operators, statistically the highest risk group for accidents. The tool kits contain materials, practices, and strategies already used successfully by large commercial helicopter operators such as Bristow, CHC and PHI to lower their accident rates substantially below the industry average. “That’s why their operations already are relatively accident-free,” said M.E. “Rhett” Flater, American Helicopter Society International executive director and IHST secretariat.
