Despite strict flight discipline, U.S. Army aircraft infrequently suffer inflight mishaps. This is a retrospective study of aircrew survival and rescue in 97 mishaps investigated by the U.S. Army Safety Center from October 1988 to June 1990. To identify factors delaying rescue, later mishaps were compared with 37 mishaps where the time to reach the mishap site exceeded 2 hours. The average time to reach a mishap site was 2.2 hours, but over 90 percent were reached within 2 hours. There were two or more survivors at 82 percent of the sites, and 98 percent of the downed aircrew had at least personal survival equipment available. Adverse operational and environmental factors were more common in delayed rescue mishaps. Sudden aircraft failure was three times more common in prolonged rescue mishaps, while night or instrument meterologic conditions contributed eight times and four times greater risk of delay, respectively. Rescues in mountainous terrain or over water were seven times more likely to be delayed. While fatalities were more common with prolonged rescue, there were no mishaps where a delay in reaching the crash site resulted in loss of life.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    U.S. Army Aviation Life Support Equipment Retrieval Program. U.S. Army Aircrew Rescue and Factors Delaying Rescue


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    1996


    Size :

    18 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Air crash rescue in the army

    Briot, W. R. | NTRS | 1969


    EMERGENCY RESCUE SYSTEM OF AIRCREW MEMBER

    POZDNYAKOV SERGEJ SERGEEVICH / SHMUKLER BORIS YUREVICH / KISELEV YURIJ ANDREEVICH et al. | European Patent Office | 2017

    Free access