The Air Charter Safety Foundation is mourning the lives of 10 passengers over the last week – we send our deepest condolences to the family and friends affected by this devasting loss.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SAFETY SYSTEMS
As we await the outcome of the National Safety Transportation Board investigations, we want to stress the importance of rapidly adopting vital safety programs and systems throughout all Part 91, 91K, and Part 135 operations. While regulatory mandates for SMS programs are not expected for a few more years, all operators can take steps TODAY to improve safety and Just Culture, protecting lives and the industry’s health.
Safety tools are scalable to organizations of every size. Our mission is to provide access to proven programs and a pathway to continuous safety improvements from a single-pilot operation to large-scale unscheduled air carriers and encourage industry standardization to collect and disseminate safety information. Scheduled airliners have been using many of these tools for decades, leading to extremely low accident and fatality rates, and our programs are designed to customize these tools to the unique environment of business aviation and other unscheduled operations.
While our industry has made great strides in reducing accidents and incidents, ACSF aims to eliminate aviation accidents in Part 91, 91K, and Part 135 operations.
THE PATHWAY TO SAFETY
SMS: All organizations can deploy a Safety Management System that embraces Just Culture using ACSF’s SMS Tools and Member Assistance Program. As a non-profit, we provide these programs at the lowest cost possible to encourage even the smallest organizations to participate.
Standardization: ACSF pioneered the Industry Audit Standard (IAS) and strongly encourages organizations to test and grow their safety programs by by becoming IAS registered or participating in other for-profit auditing programs, such as Wyvern or ARGUS. These audits incorporate best practices and standards from across the globe to ensure the highest safety and vigilance in operations.
Data Collection: The next phase of industry safety, a state of zero accidents, will come from the mass collection and dissemination of safety data to all industry stakeholders.
ACSF is already the largest aggregator of Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) data in the United States, and we strongly encourage all our members to participate in the Voluntary Disclosure Reporting Program (VDRP). We are on track to expand our mission to include the collection of Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) system data and mass adoption of Cockpit Voice Recorders, and other sources in the future. As a non-profit, we act as a third-party gatekeeper to protect the origin of safety data so that it can be shared with the entire industry.
We call on all operators, passengers, insurers, and other industry stakeholders to take an active role in calling for the adoption of these tools in all operation types and sizes. At a minimum, a working Safety Management System that is appropriately scaled to the scope and complexity of an operation’s size as well as unique operating environment should be in place.
Join or encourage your industry colleagues to join ACSF today to get on the pathway to safety. Membership discounts are available through our partners, such as Helicopter Association International, and the National Air Transportation Association. Your membership supports our mission to raise the bar of safety throughout the industry and achieve zero accidents.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors of the Air Charter Safety Foundation
