Predictive Maintenance in Helicopter Operations: Impact on Maintenance Cost, Safety, and Insurance

This study explores the influence of predictive maintenance (PdM) on helicopter operations, focusing on its impact on manual inspections, operational costs, safety, and insurance. Using a dataset of maintenance-related aviation incidents, combined with statistical analysis in R, we uncover trends in incident frequency, injury severity, and fatality distribution over the past four decades. The results indicate that while overall incident rates have declined, the implementation of predictive maintenance correlates with measurable reductions in fatal and serious injuries, as well as operational costs and insurance liabilities. Our findings recommend broader adoption of PdM strategies, particularly in general aviation and helicopter fleets.