Scenario-Based Hierarchical Causal Analysis of R44 Helicopter Accidents in China's General Aviation

Abstract

The Robinson R44 helicopter has a high accident rate in China's general aviation sector. Traditional human factors models have limitations when we use them under specific operational conditions, because they have coarse granularity in many cases and the conclusions are generalized, which makes it hard to find the real causes in different flight scenarios. We propose an improved scenario-based and causal-layered model. We use the full dataset of R44 accidents in civil aviation of China to conduct a stratified empirical analysis, and we can identify the differences in high-frequency contributing factors across different scenarios, which can help us understand the accident mechanisms in each layer. We develop scenario-based risk control strategies from organizational and supervisory perspectives. We include individual factors in our analysis. It is worth noting that the results can be used as a reference for improving operational safety of Robinson R44, and they can support future engineering practice in accident prevention and safety management.