United States Department of Transportation
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Abstract:An analysis of the frequency of four different types of rotorcraft accidents was conducted to determine if the number of fatalities and injuries between accident conditions was different. Accidents involving rollover, no rollover, fire, and no fire were studied to determine if accidents with a rollover or fire might be creating evacuation delays that contribute to the fatality and injury rates. A search of the FAA Accident Incident Data System from January1986 to March 1997 produced 2704 accident records for this analysis. A Chi-Square test for independence was used to determine the difference between the rollover and no rollover and fire and no fire accident categories. Further analysis were performed on combinations of the two main categories to determine if an event such as a rollover and fire produced more fatalities or injuries than a rollover without a fire. There were more fatalities in the no rollover category (P=.0001) and more injuries in the rollover group (P=.001). Accidents with a fire produced more fatalities than accidents without a fire, (P=.0001). Rollover accidents without a fire produced more fatalities (P=.0001) than no rollovers without a fire, and more injuries were produced in the rollover no fire group (P=.0001) than the no rollover no fire category. The group of accidents where the rotorcraft rolled and caught fire lead to more fatalities (P=.0001), and the no rollover group with fire generated more fatalities (P=.0001). Rollover accidents injure more people, and accidents with no rollover kill more occupants. It appears as if the no rollover condition produces greater impact forces, preventing the rotorcraft from bouncing and rolling; consequently, the higher fatality rate. Fires produce more fatalities but not more injuries. Autopsy data might explain this, but smoke inhalation during the evacuation and the speed of the evacuation warrant more attention, since it may be a contributing factor in the number of fatalities. The top 50% of positive comments included four categories/topics: confidence in leadership, satisfaction with job overall, commitment/loyalty to the FAA, and confidence in nonsupervisory employees. The top 50% of negative comments included 20 categories/topics. Of these, the categories/topics representing the highest proportion of negative comments were: confidence in leadership; morale; privatization/future contracting; understaffing; FAA policies, practices, and programs; encouraging hard work; management concern for employees; promotion equity; comments about the survey; and trust. The high number of negative comments included in this report should not compel the reader to conclude that employees were extremely dissatisfied overall. In fact, the quantitative reports of response frequencies to the closed-ended items on the survey revealed a variety of areas where most employees were satisfied. For a balanced view of employee feedback, consider the results from the quantitative reports along with employee comments from the survey.
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