Aviation has historically been a reactive, not a proactive, industry – it’s commonly said that Federal Aviation Regulations were “written in blood.” Recent concerns over manufacturing quality control and safety culture have entered the news cycle again, yet the tools to reduce risk in the industry are available now.
The adoption of Safety Management Systems and risk mitigation tools throughout private aviation has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years – FAA rulemaking for SMS for manufacturers is expected in the Summer of 2024. Identifying hazards, ongoing evaluations, and data sharing are changing the industry for the better every day.
ACSF is leading the charge on this movement by aggregating the largest database of hundreds of operators’ Aviation Action Safety Program (ASAP) reports, establishing standards through the Industry Audit Standard, and building tools for operators of all sizes to raise the safety bar for the entire 135, 91, and 91K community.
ARE EMERGING AI TECHNOLOGIES BEING TRAINED WITH SAFETY IN MIND?
We have more transformative technologies coming to the industry more rapidly than ever. Automated landing features are being incorporated on personal aircraft today; uncrewed and crewed eVTOLs are on our horizon. Increasingly, we look to technology to reduce risk, but are we training these technologies with the safety lessons we’ve learned?
Software and machine learning tools aren’t created in a vacuum; the humans who code and develop these systems leave imprints of their experiences on these tools. We’ve seen evidence of human bias impacting technology through large firms like Amazon, who stopped using an AI hiring tool after discovering the tool was discriminatory.
We are seeing industries like driverless motor vehicles face backlash and slowdowns over safety concerns after many accidents involving faulty coding and other errors. “It now appears that self-driving cars experience roughly twice the rate of rear-end collisions as do cars driven by people.” (IEEE) Even when removing humans from an automated process, we do not remove the potential for human error.
AIR CHARTER SAFETY FOUNDATION’S CALL FOR ACTION
The ACSF strongly supports and encourages the study of Dr. Nancy Leveson’s work in Systems Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA), a small sample of which is attached to this message (or through MIT’s Partnership for Systems Approaches to Safety & Security materials here).
The future of aviation technology depends on a foundation in aviation safety practices – and we do not want to see these transformative technologies and aircraft stifled from growth by failing to invest in safety tools and standards that have been developed over many generations.
This is why the ACSF is calling on developers, coders, machine learning experts, and others involved in the future of private aviation technology to add Just Culture and proven safety frameworks to their processes by taking these steps:
- Initial and ongoing training in Just Culture and Aviation Safety Fundamentals from executive leaders to front-line personnel
- Implementation of an SMS and/or Systems Theoretic Process Analysis(STPA) at technology and manufacturing organizations
- Engage with industry partners and attend aviation safety events
ACSF provides many tools and guides for free on our website. We also call on technologists to attend our upcoming Safety Symposium and join the ACSF to engage in meaningful discussions on the future of aviation safety.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors of the Air Charter Safety Foundation
