Update on the Progress of the European Helicopter Safety Team (EHEST)
June 2010

1st 2010 meeting of the European Helicopter Safety Analysis Team (EHSAT) on 25 June at EASA in Cologne

The EHSAT is preparing its Final Report on 2000-2005 Accidents which occurred in Europe and for which a report by the Accident Investigation Bureau in charge was available. This report will be the main deliverable of the year and will follow on from the Preliminary Report published in 2009 which covered the first 186 accidents to be analysed; over 400 copies of the initial report have been distributed to stakeholders. The latest report will cover 312 reports, which shows the significant progress in analysis over the last two years, and will be formally presented at the International Helicopter Safety Seminar (IHSS 2010), which, for the first time, will take place in Europe (see pages 2 and 3). Key events, such as the EASA Rotorcraft Symposium in Cologne (8-9 Dec 2010) will also be used to reach our target audiences.

The EHSAT Regional Teams (RTs) continue the analysis of helicopter accidents which occurred in Europe after 2005, and for some of them, like the UK EHSAT, before 2000. The Regional Teams will then continue the analysis of accidents reports at the rate of approximately one year of accidents per year. This is to monitor the effects of future safety enhancements and identify any emerging safety issues related, for instance, to operational, technological and regulatory developments.


1st 2010 meeting of the European Helicopter Safety Implementation Team (EHSIT) on 25-27 June at EASA in Cologne

The EHSIT’s role is to take the analysed data produced by the EHSAT and to develop, implement and monitor safety enhancement action plans across Europe. These action plans will contribute to achieving the shared IHST/EHEST objective of reducing the accident rate within Europe by 80% by 2016.

The Specialist Team (ST) Operations & SMS and ST Training met in parallel sessions to review the work programmes for 2010, to aggregate the Intervention Recommendations (IRs) produced over the last months by the EHSAT, and to prepare for the 2010 report - which for the first time will also contain a Section on EHSIT.

The ST Ops & SMS has decided to focus on the three most important areas identified in the EHSAT IRs: Standard Operating Procedures, Hazard Identification and Risk Management, and Safety Management System. The Team will develop pre-flight and mission preparation checklists adapted to different kinds of missions, useable in combination with the IHST SMS Toolkit and/or IS-BAO (Helicopter Edition).

The EHSIT ST Training will develop Safety Leaflets and videos on subjects such as Vortex Ring and LTE, Dynamic and Static Rollover, Loss of Visual References, RPM management, and Helicopter Modern Cockpit & Training. In the longer term, the Team will also tackle the more ambitious project to develop an Instructor Training Manual.

The EHSIT ST Regulation has developed its Terms of Reference, aggregated all related IRs coming from the EHSAT, and is extending participation. On behalf of the EHEST, the Team was also tasked to present comments to the draft EASA Opinion on a Commission Regulation establishing the Implementing Rules for the Licensing of pilots. Comments were sent on time using the official channel.

Project to develop a Helicopter Safety Portal on SKYbrary: a side meeting took place between representatives of EHSIT, IHST, and SKYbrary.
SKYbrary is the safety knowledge portal developed by EUROCONTROL with support from ICAO, the European Strategic Safety Initiative (ESSI) of which EHEST is the helicopter component, the UK Flight Safety Committee (UKFSC) and the International Federation of Airworthiness (IFA)) to see how SKYbrary might be used for providing a central ‘portal’ of helicopter safety related articles and information as well as acting as an outlet for EHEST communications.

An agreement will be signed and a process will be defined to develop a Helicopter safety portal. SKYbrary was represented by its Program Manager Alexander Krastev, EUROCONTROL, and the meeting was facilitated by Air Commodore (Retd) Rich Jones, of the UKFSC.


1st 2010 meeting of the European Helicopter Safety Team (EHEST) on 27th June 2010 at EASA in Cologne

The EHEST is the decision making body of the initiative. In this 1st EHEST meeting of 2010, the EHSAT and the EHSIT presented their achievements, work in progress, and work program for 2010.

The EHEST approved the launch of a fourth Specialist Team on Maintenance.
This Team, to be led by D. Huntzinger of Eurocopter, will bring together European and US experts and develop the IHST Maintenance Toolkit. This new toolkit will complete the series featuring so far the IHST SMS Toolkit, the IHST Training Toolkit, the IHST Risk Assessment Toolkit, and the IHST Helicopter Flight Data Monitoring Toolkit. See www.ihst.org.

The EHEST has declared support to the development in 2010 of the Helicopter version of IS-BAO. An agreement to develop ISBAO (HE) was signed at the Berlin Airshow on 9 June 2010 by NewEHA, Helicopter Association International (HAI), British Helicopter Association (BHA), and the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC). IS-BAO is a set of performance-based standards that addresses operations, maintenance, training and other related issues. As well as providing an SMS template it also provides a complete verification audit programme. Benefits are foreseen in particular for small operators. Whilst the EHEST does not endorse IS-BAO (HE) as an exclusive SMS product, it supports its development: EHEST continues to highlight all the options available to operators, such as the IHST SMS Toolkit that IHST will continue to offer free of charge.

IHSS 2010 Announcement: Sue Gardner, IHST Program Director, has announced the Fourth edition of the International Helicopter Safety Symposium (IHSS 2010) taking place for the first time in Europe. Hosted by the EHEST, IHSS 2010 is jointly organised by the IHST and the EHEST and will take place in the Miragem Hotel in Cascais, Portugal, on 3-4 October (just before Helitech which is also taking place in Cascais). Registration will be opened soon. For more information, please visit www.ihst.org.



EHEST Communication Sub-Group: The Communication Sub-Group is a specialised team of EHEST.  Over the last months, the team has built a comprehensive list of organisations and existing distribution networks for communication purposes. This list will be used as an entry point to the helicopter community, focusing on small operators and General Aviation but also reaching out to pan-European organisations and linking to International forums.


Publications and Conferences in brief

• The final EHEST report on 2000-2005 accidents will be published mid 2010 and presented at IHSS 2010.
• The Helicopter version of IS-BAO will be developed in 2010.
  
• A mixed European-US Team will develop the IHST Maintenance Toolkit.
  
• A mixed European-US Team will develop a Helicopter Safety Portal on SKYbrary.
  
• The International Helicopter Safety Symposium (IHSS 2010) will take place in the Hotel Miragem in Cascais, Portugal, on 2-3 October, just before Helitech.
  
• The 4th EASA Rotorcraft Symposium will take place in Dec in Cologne, Germany (8-9 Dec).
  

Background information on EHEST

The EHEST brings together helicopter manufacturers, operators, regulators, helicopter and pilots associations, research organisations, accident investigators and military operators from across Europe.  EHEST has members from organisations including: Eurocopter, AgustaWestland, EASA, UK CAA, MoD UK DASC, DGAC France, BEA France, ENAC Italy, CAA Norway, FOCA CH, EHA, EHOC, EHAC, QinetiQ, RAeS, Irish AAIB, AIB Hungary, UK AAIB, BFU Germany, Bristow Group, CHC, Shell Aircraft Ltd, NLR, DLR, AviateQ Int., APYTHEL, AIB and CAA Spain, Swiss Helicopter Association, etc.

EHEST addresses the broad spectrum of helicopter operations across Europe; from commercial air transport to General Aviation and flight training activities.  EHEST brings together around 130 participants, from which around 70 are actively involved in the analysis and implementation activities.