Helicopter safety
Hi all! First post here from a long time helicopter enthusiast looking for thoughts from professionals...
Just wondered if you anyone could offer insight in helicopter safety worldwide. Someone I know tweeted that an helicopter that recently made an emergency landing was very lucky as when something mechanical goes wrong with helicotpers they normally "drop out of the sky", hence why they have to follow waterways where possible in the UK.
He also added that stats for helicopter crashes were "way worse" than for planes...
From what I've read, it's simply not true that they almost always drop out of the sky (they can do in case of tail rotor issues, but in other cases you can use autorotation and other forms of emergency landings), but they fly over water where possible because they fly low and can't glide as far. And I also read 3/4 of crashes are survived.
As for stats, I read that in the U.S., airliners aside, helicopters are actually slightly safer than small planes. And even when comparing helicopters to general aviation stats (so including airliners), it seems helicopters are only slightly worse, not way worse. Didn't find stats for Europe but can't imagine it'd be that different as to be "way worse". Apparently his mate is a UK transport lawyer and told him that helicopter safety is "horrific".
Wonder what your thoughts were? 😀