IT’S NOT THAT helicopters aren’t safe; it’s that they are not safe enough. A crash like the one that killed basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and seven others last week is a mercifully rare event. The average annual fatality rate for helicopters was 0.63 per 100,000 flight hours, according to the FAA; and in 2018, 24 accidents resulted in 55 deaths, according to the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team, a volunteer industry-government panel. Those figures include fatalities in risky low-altitude operations, including...

Source: Wall Street Journal January 31, 2020 12:33 UTC