Standardization of Rotorcraft Guidelines for Quantitative Risk Assessment

Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (SAC) uses Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) to accurately predict future risk by first analyzing the risk without corrective action (uncorrected risk), and then analyzing the risk with specific mitigating actions implemented (corrected risk). However, Sikorsky and the aviation industry do not have standard QRA Guidelines for predicting future risk. In an attempt to resolve this issue, SAC sponsored a Benchmarking event to document the basis of the established QRA guidelines used internally at SAC and at the same time develop and implement standard QRA guidelines for use in the rotary wing aircraft industry. The benchmarking event was conducted through a series of meetings where current industry and FAA guidelines were discussed with new guidelines being developed. The benchmarking process resulted in the significant milestone of industry/government agreement on uniform definitions and risk guidelines for all rotorcraft and for engines installed on multi engine rotorcraft. The new guidelines were adopted by the group and have been incorporated into the FAA Rotorcraft Risk Analysis Handbook for application in the rotary wing aircraft industry.