Loss of Control In Flight, Runway Excursions Are Top Bizav Safety Concerns

Loss of control in flight (LOCI) and runway excursions were the uppermost concerns in the NBAAsafety committee’s third annual list of top safety focus areas, released today. In addition, the committee highlighted several other safety hazards, including airspace complexities; birds and wildlife; distraction and technology management; fatigue; ground handling collisions; procedural non-compliance; and single-pilot task saturation.

The list is intended to promote safety-focused discussion and advocacy throughout the business aviation industry, as well as to help the safety committee prioritize NBAA’s resources to help improve safety industry-wide. In developing this year’s list, the committee took a data-driven approach to determine the biggest risks. Thus, the top safety priorities were identified based on an objective analysis that combined data trends, survey results and qualitative input from other NBAAcommittees, industry and regulatory partners and members.

“The results of our data-driven approach to identifying the biggest opportunities for improving business aviation safety are definitive,” said committee chairman Steve Charbonneau. “Loss of control in flight and runway excursions are the deadliest and most frequent business aviation accidents, and also of highest concern to NBAA members. The association is committed to working with industry partners and will dedicate significant resources to develop tools and programs designed to help operators mitigate these risks.”

In the last decade, no type of accident has caused more commercial and business aviation fatalities than LOCI, NBAA noted. The NTSB also targeted the issue on its 2015 “Most Wanted” list of safety improvements, citing it as a possible factor in more than 40 percent of fixed-wing general aviation accidents from 2001 to 2011. Compounding business aviation’s challenge in addressing LOCI is the sector’s wide range of aircraft types and operating parameters, which work against any single solution for reducing LOCI occurrences.

According to the report, runway excursions are the most common type of business aviation accident. Despite efforts to reduce the runway excursion rate, the frequency of this type of accident has changed little over the last decade, hovering around 3.6 per one million flights—some 60 percent higher than the corresponding commercial aviation rate. “While runway excursions are often survivable, they are also preventable, based on well identified risk factors, aircraft performance considerations and recommended defenses, making this type of mishap a logical target of a focused risk-reduction effort,” NBAA said.

“Our analysis elevated the hazard list items as issues that all operators should be vigilant about in their day-to-day operations,” Charbonneau said. “The safety committee is committed to providing information, resources and tools to help the industry mitigate these hazards, and we will be introducing these products throughout the year.”

In developing its 2015 safety advocacy strategy, the safety committee also identified five basic safety elements—dubbed “foundations for safety”—that operators need to support. These include professionalism, safety leadership, risk management, fitness for duty and technical excellence. The committee said each is critically important to address the complex business aviation environment and should form part of an overall systematic approach to safety risk management.

“The foundations for safety should be seen as exactly that: the base that supports all meaningful, beneficial safety efforts,” Charbonneau said. “While NBAA is committed to providing tools and resources to help operators strengthen these foundations and mitigate risk in the areas we’ve identified, we urge everyone to take steps today and examine how they can improve safety in their operations. The most effective safety efforts are proactive. Identifying and acknowledging the risks in your operations is the first step in preventing the next accident.”