U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS COMPENSATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS

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Fatal Occupational Injuries Involving Helicopters, 1995-2002

by Stephen M. Pegula

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Originally Posted: October 27, 2004

Over the 8-year period from 1995 to 2002, 459 workers were killed on the job in helicopter-related incidents. Nearly half (47

percent) of those killed in such incidents worked in government, including 150 in the resident armed forces.

From 1995 to 2002, 459 workers were killed in incidents involving helicopters,1 according to data from the Bureau of Labor

Statistics (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI). These fatalities accounted for about 1 percent of all (48,193)

fatal work injuries that occurred during that period. The number of work-related fatalities involving helicopters reached a high

of 76 in 1998 and declined steadily thereafter to a low of 37 in 2002.2 (See Table.) While the majority of those killed in

helicopter-related incidents worked in the private sector, government workers also incurred a large number of these fatalities,

particularly members of the military.3

Helicopter Use

Workers who use helicopters face risks beyond the ordinary dangers inherent in flying. The BLS Occupational Outlook

Handbook notes, "helicopters are used for short trips at relatively low altitude, so pilots must be constantly on the lookout for

trees, bridges, power lines, transmission towers, and other dangerous obstacles."4 Helicopters are also often used for rescue

operations. In his book Heart of the Storm: My Adventures as a Helicopter Rescue Pilot and Commander, Colonel Edward

Fleming describes helicopter use this way:

The irony of the helicopter is that its greatest blessing--its versatility--is also its greatest curse. Because they

can do so much, flying in and out of the tightest spots under the worst conditions, helicopters often are flown

into situations where the safety options diminish exponentially, leading to peril and, frequently, death.5

Undoubtedly, workers who use helicopters face considerable risks, sometimes fatal ones.

Demographic Analysis Of The Decedents

Approximately 85 percent of the decedents in helicopter-related fatal work injuries were non-Hispanic whites. Non-Hispanic

whites accounted for 73 percent of workplace fatalities in general from 1995 to 2002. Hispanic workers made up 6 percent of

all fatally injured workers in a helicopter-related incident; Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander workers made up 4

percent; and black workers made up 2 percent. Men accounted for 93 percent of the workplace fatalities involving

helicopters, while accounting for 92 percent of workplace fatalities in general.

Those fatally injured in helicopter-related incidents were more likely to be aged 25 to 54 than fatally injured workers in

general; 84 percent of the decedents killed in helicopter-related incidents were aged 25 to 54, compared with 67 percent for

all fatally injured workers. Wage and salary workers made up 94 percent of the decedents; the remainder were selfemployed.

Industry And Occupation6

Workers in the private sector constituted 53 percent of the fatal work injuries involving helicopters. About half (51 percent) of

these private industry fatalities came from the transportation and public utilities industry--most of which were in nonscheduled

air transportation. Other major industry groups within the private sector that had a large number of fatal work injuries involving

helicopters include services (11 percent of all fatal work injuries involving helicopters) and agriculture, forestry, and fishing (5

percent). The majority of the decedents in agriculture, forestry, and fishing were employed in SIC 072, crop services, and

these decedents were often engaged in crop dusting at the time of the fatal incident.
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Government workers accounted for 47 percent of helicopter-related workplace fatalities, while they made up just 10 percent

of the decedents for workplace fatalities as a whole. Federal government workers accounted for 77 percent of the

government workplace fatalities involving helicopters--the vast majority coming from the national security field.7 Local

government workers accounted for 12 percent of the government fatalities, and State government workers accounted for 10

percent. The majority of State and local government workers fatally injured in helicopter-related incidents were employed in

police protection.

One-third of the workers fatally injured in incidents involving helicopters were employed in military occupations,8 and another

third were employed as nonmilitary pilots. In contrast, military occupations accounted for less than 2 percent of all fatal work

injuries, as did nonmilitary pilots. Decedents who worked in military occupations were often on training flights or engaged in

combat exercises when killed. Other occupations with a large number of helicopter-related workplace fatalities include police

and detectives, including supervisors (5 percent of all work-related fatalities involving helicopters); registered nurses (4

percent); and mechanics and repairers (4 percent). These registered nurses usually were fatally injured while transporting

injured patients.

Circumstances Of The Fatality

Not surprisingly, the most frequent fatal event (98 percent) involving a helicopter was an aircraft incident--typically, the

helicopter crashed into the ground or another object, or it collided with another aircraft.9 In 10 percent of these aircraft

incidents, the decedent’s helicopter collided with another helicopter. Most of the decedents in these cases were in the

military. Helicopters also often hit bodies of water, mountains, trees, or electrical power lines. The remainder of the fatal

incidents involved the decedent making contact with objects or equipment. In most of these incidents, the decedents were

struck by the rotors of the helicopter.

Approximately 92 percent of the decedents were flying in a helicopter at the time of the fatal incident--44 percent as pilots

and 48 percent as passengers. Fatal occupational injuries involving helicopters were more likely to occur at night than fatal

occupational injuries in general. For the cases where time of incident was available,10 24 percent of the helicopter-related

fatalities occurred between the hours of 9:00 P.M. and 5:59 A.M. For all fatalities, that figure was 16 percent. The State with

the most fatal work injuries involving helicopters was California, with 75, which represented about 16 percent of all the fatal

work injuries involving helicopters. Other States with a large number of this type of fatality were Texas (10 percent) and North

Carolina (10 percent). Notably, each of these States contains a large number of military personnel.11

One striking feature about fatal work injuries involving helicopters is the likelihood that more than one work-related fatality

was associated with each fatal incident. Of the 459 fatalities, 328 (71 percent) had at least one other occupational fatality

associated with them. These 328 workers were killed in 107 separate multiple-fatality incidents.

Conclusion

Nearly half of the 459 workers who were fatally injured in helicopter-related incidents during the 1995-2002 period were

government employees. More than four-fifths of those killed in such incidents were non-Hispanic whites, and more than ninetenths were men. Workers killed in helicopter-related incidents also were more likely than other fatally injured workers to be

aged 25 to 54 (84 percent versus 67 percent). Aircraft incidents were the most common event associated with helicopterrelated workplace fatalities. More than two-thirds of the fatal workplace injuries involving helicopters had another occupational

fatality associated with the incident. Although the number of this type of fatal work injury has declined in recent years, such

incidents continue to present an occupational health challenge, particularly among military occupations and nonmilitary pilots.

Stephen M. Pegula

Economist, Office of Safety, Health, and Working Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Telephone: (202) 691-6166; E-mail: Pegula.Stephen@bls.gov
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Notes

Acknowledgment: The author would like to thank Katherine Loh, Samuel Meyer, Scott Richardson, and Janice Windau for

their assistance in the preparation of this article.

1 Specifically, any fatal work injury in which a helicopter was classified as one of the sources of the fatal injury was included in this analysis.

Primary and secondary sources were coded according to the BLS Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS). Helicopters

can be coded as the primary source of the injury when the victim was an occupant of the helicopter or if the helicopter directly inflicted the

injury, such as when a helicopter blade strikes a worker on the ground. A helicopter would be coded as the secondary source if the aircraft in

which the victim was riding collided with a helicopter, or if a helicopter were otherwise involved in the incident. For example, if the victim were

struck by a log that had slipped from a helicopter's cable, the log would be considered the primary source and the helicopter the secondary

source. For more information on OIICS, see Occupational Injury and Illness Classification Manual (Bureau of Labor Statistics, December

1992); available on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/oiicm.pdf. 2 The 2002 data used in this analysis are updated and final.

3 In this study, the term "military" refers to the resident armed forces. Incidents occurring in another country are excluded from CFOI data.

4 See "Aircraft Pilots and Flight Engineers," in Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2002-03 Edition, Bulletin 2540 (Bureau of Labor Statistics,

January 2002). The 2004-05 version of the Occupational Outlook Handbook is available on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/.

5 Edward Fleming, Heart of the Storm: My Adventures as a Helicopter Rescue Pilot and Commander (Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley and Sons,

2004), p. 4.

6 The CFOI data used in this analysis are classified by industry according to the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. For

more information on the SIC system, see Standard Industrial Classification Manual: 1987 (Office of Management and Budget, 1987). The

CFOI data are classified by occupation according to the 1990 Census Bureau occupation codes. For more information on the 1990 Census

Bureau codes, see "The Relationship Between the 1990 Census and Census 2000 Industry and Occupation Classification Systems, Technical

Paper #65," (U.S. Census Bureau, October 30, 2003); available on the Internet at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/ioindex/tp65_report.html.

7 Under the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system, the national security industry--which includes the four branches of the military, the

National Guard, and military training schools--is coded 9711. For more information, see Standard Industrial Classification Manual: 1987 (Office

of Management and Budget, 1987). For an online description of SIC 9711, see the following page of the U.S. Department of Labor’s

Occupational Safety and Health Administration website: http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/sic_manual.display?id=345&tab=description.

8 Regardless of the specific occupation, any military personnel killed at work are tabulated as working in military occupations. Thus, a pilot in

the military would be tabulated under "military occupations" and not under "pilots."

9 Events are defined and coded according to the BLS Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS). For more information on

OIICS, see Occupational Injury and Illness Classification Manual (Bureau of Labor Statistics, December 1992); available on the Internet at 

http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/oiicm.pdf. 10 Of the 459 fatal occupational injuries involving helicopters that occurred from 1995 to 2002, time of incident was available for 446 incidents.

Of the 48,193 fatal occupational injuries that occurred from 1995 to 2002, time of incident was available for 45,788 incidents (95 percent).

11 For more data on military personnel by State in 2002, see "Atlas/Data Abstract for the US and Selected Areas (L03): Fiscal Year 2002: All

States and US Total" (U.S. Department of Defense, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, Statistical Information Analysis

Division), on the Internet at http://web1.whs.osd.mil/MMID/L03/fy02/ATLAS_2002.pdf.
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Table. Fatal Occupational Injuries Involving Helicopters, 1995–2002

Characteristics Number of Fatalities

Total 459

Year

1995 50

1996 70

1997 64

1998 76

1999 60

2000 59

2001 43

2002 37

Employee status

Wage and salary workers(1) 430

Self-employed(2) 29

Sex

Men 427

Women 32

Age

20 to 24 years 38

25 to 34 years 154

35 to 44 years 120

45 to 54 years 110

55 to 64 years 24

65 and over 10

Race or ethnic origin (3)

White 389

Black or African American 11

Hispanic or Latino 28

Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander 17

Occupation

Managerial and professional specialty 56

Professional specialty 42

Health assessment and treating occupations 20

Footnotes:

(1) This category may include volunteers and other workers receiving compensation.

(2) Includes paid and unpaid family workers, and may include owners of incorporated businesses or members of partnerships.

(3) In this study, the racial categories "White" and "Black or African American" do not include persons from the ethnic category "Hispanic or

Latino." Hispanic or Latino persons may identify themselves racially as white, black, or another race category.

(4) CFOI data cover military occupations in the resident armed forces only; incidents occurring in other countries are excluded.

(5) Includes members of the resident armed forces as well as workers employed in other governmental organizations, regardless of industry.

NOTE: Totals for 2001 exclude fatalities resulting from the September 11 terrorist attacks. Totals for major categories may include

subcategories not shown separately.

SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI).
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Characteristics Number of Fatalities

Registered nurses 19

Technical, sales, and administrative support 170

Technicians and related support occupations 166

Technicians, except health, engineering, and science 146

Airplane pilots and navigators 145

Service occupations 32

Protective service occupations 32

Police and detectives, including supervisors 23

Precision production, craft, and repair 29

Mechanics and repairers 18

Mechanics and repairers, except supervisors 18

Vehicle and mobile equipment mechanics, repairers 14

Aircraft engine mechanics 10

Military occupations(4) 150

Industry

Private industry 242

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing 24

Transportation and public utilities 124

Transportation by air 112

Transportation by air, nonscheduled 98

Services 50

Health services 20

Hospitals 17

Government(5) 217

Federal government 167

Public administration 161

National security and international affairs 150

National security 150

State government 21

Local government 27

Footnotes:

(1) This category may include volunteers and other workers receiving compensation.

(2) Includes paid and unpaid family workers, and may include owners of incorporated businesses or members of partnerships.

(3) In this study, the racial categories "White" and "Black or African American" do not include persons from the ethnic category "Hispanic or

Latino." Hispanic or Latino persons may identify themselves racially as white, black, or another race category.

(4) CFOI data cover military occupations in the resident armed forces only; incidents occurring in other countries are excluded.

(5) Includes members of the resident armed forces as well as workers employed in other governmental organizations, regardless of industry.

NOTE: Totals for 2001 exclude fatalities resulting from the September 11 terrorist attacks. Totals for major categories may include

subcategories not shown separately.

SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI).

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