MD Helicopters Study -- Training Pays!

A study by MD Helicopters has reached the unsurprising conclusion that helicopter pilots are safer pilots if they are trained. Using a datadase of 3,427 helicopters, the study examined 157 accidents and incidents involving Boeing and MDH customers between 1997 and 2001. More than 90% of them occurred in aircraft operated by pilots who did not participate in a continuing factory recurrent training schemes.

"The study shows conclusively that more training leads to fewer accidents," says MDH training manager Ada Charles. "The dramatic data clearly illustrate the importance of on-going training to the helicopter pilot community." 56% of the year 2000's accidents and incidents were in aircraft operated by pilots without any factory training and 31% were in choppers flown by pilots with transition -- only training. But only seven of 157 accidents and incidents in the four-year study occurred in aircraft flown by pilots with recurrent factory training and there were no fatalities or injuries reported in any of them.

The conclusion, inevitably, is that recurrent training pays.

By Bob Rodwell