Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) and Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) for Helicopters

The Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) has been very effective at reducing the number of Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT) accidents involving fixed wing aircraft. Since the introduction of the EGPWS the rate of fixed wing CFIT accidents has been significantly reduced. On the other hand, helicopter CFIT accidents continue to exist. This is partly because there has been no EGPWS made available for helicopter’s to provide a similar level of protection as fixed wing. This is also caused by pilots’ misunderstanding on the CFIT risk. Honeywell now has a version of EGPWS specifically designed for helicopters. The helicopter EGPWS provides Terrain Awareness Display and Terrain Alerting System customized for helicopter operations. A high-resolution terrain/obstacle database is included in the system. By knowledge of the aircraft’s 3-D location, speed and track, the system can “see” conflicting terrain/obstacles along the flight path that may not be seen by the pilots. A number of helicopter accident profiles were simulated as part of the development of this system. The helicopter EGPWS provides alerts/warnings with more than sufficient time to avoid threatening terrain/obstacles.