Bizav Association Announces 2019 Safety Priorities

Reducing the risk of loss of control-inflight (LOC-I), runway excursions, and controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) top the National Business Aviation Association's newly released annual list of pressing business aviation safety issues. “It is important that business aviation operators keep loss of control–inflight, controlled flight into terrain, and runway excursions in focus," said Tom Huff, aviation safety officer for Gulfstream Aerospace and chair of the NBAA Safety Committee, "since these risks remain in the majority of business aviation accidents.”

Four additional safety goals have been named on the 2019 list: reduction of the risk of aircraft ground operation and handling incidents; improvement of the safety performance of single-pilot operations; increasing the use and sharing of human-reported and automated safety data, and improved defenses against automation mismanagement. Many of the focus areas are similar to last year's, but the safety data topic has been modified to stress the idea that "collecting data is not enough," but instead must also be actively shared to have a true impact on safety.

The Safety Committee's five foundations for safety—professionalism, safety leadership, risk management, fitness for duty, and technical excellence—remain unchanged.

The NBAA is reaching out to "aircraft-type clubs and local and regional groups to highlight the association resources that are available to single-pilot operators, recognizing they often don’t have the support infrastructure of larger flight departments," said Huff.