Helmet-mounted displays and facial injury in US Army AH-64A Apache accidents

There is concern that the helmet display unit (HDU) used by AH-64 Apache helicopter pilots might contribute to facial injury in a crash. The US Army accident database was searched for HDU-related injuries in survivable Apache accidents 1985-1995. Four aviators in three crashes sustained HDU-related injury. These involved three periorbital contusions and two minor eye injuries. There were no sequelae. This equates to an incidence of 0.57 injured individuals per 100,000 flying hours or 8.0 injured aviators per 100 survivable Class A-C accidents in which the HDU was worn. Applying these data to the projected UK Army Apache flying hour programme suggests that one HDU-related injury might be encountered approximately every 10.1 years. This estimate should be interpreted with caution. Serious injury remains a possibility due to the proximity of the HDU to the eye and face.