Safety
TSB: Rotorcraft More Prone To Loss-of-visual-reference Accidents
Helicopters more than twice as vulnerable to loss of visual reference accidents than airplanes
Photos of a accident site in Nunavut in 2021, taken hours apart, showing the snow-covered, featureless terrain; an overcast sky; and flat white conditions.
Photos of an accident site in Nunavut in 2021, taken hours apart, showing the snow-covered, featureless terrain; an overcast sky; and flat white conditions © TSB Canada

Loss-of-visual-reference accidents are more likely to involve helicopters than airplanes, according to a series of Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) investigations. Reviewing 5,177 Canadian airplane and rotorcraft accidents recorded from 2000 to 2021, investigators found a total of 95 involving a loss of visual reference: 68 of 4,378 airplane accidents versus 27 of 799 helicopter accidents—a rate more than double that of airplanes.

The TSB has linked part of that disparity to Canadian regulations that do not require commercial helicopter operators to train pilots or equip aircraft to recover from inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC), relying instead on an avoid-at-all-costs strategy that investigators have called unrealistic.