Peacetime U.S. Army aircrew rescue and factors delaying rescue

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, recent mishaps are compared with 37 mishaps where the time to reach the mishap site exceeded 2 h. The average time to reach a mishap site was 2.2 h, but over 90% were reached within 2 h. There were two or more survivors at 82% of the sites and 98% 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 meteorologic conditions contributed eight times and four times greater risk of delay, respectively. Rescues in mountainous terrain or overwater 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 the loss of an airman.