56 Seconds To Live

Weather conditions are an important consideration for pilots when flying; it’s one of the most prominent risks for all aviators. Pilots who find themselves in Inadvertent IMC situations can be demanding, disorientating and dangerous - an experience that can unfortunately result in fatality.

So - how do you best prepare and plan for the unexpected?

The team at USHST have created a safety initiative entitled “56 seconds to live” in an effort to provide industry training that can reduce the risk of fatal helicopter accidents. This initiative was formed off the back of a project undertaken in 2020 in collaboration with HAI and Airbus, where they sought to quantify the amount of time from initial entry into IMC until the fatal crash occurred.

The report of their findings can be viewed here.

Since this report, they have created an extensive list of resources that pilots can use to help educate and be best prepared for an unexpected situation.

This includes:

• Online Training resources
• Ground School, Simulator and Aircraft training resources
• Recommended Practices
• Videos
• Planning Tools
• Risk Management
• Safety Bulletins
• Essays, Fact Sheets and more.

To view these on their website, click here.

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