Almost simultaneously AIN published its 2024 Business Jets Safety Results and NBAA issued its Top 2024 Business Aviation Safety Focuses. These apparently accidentally juxtaposed articles should serve as a useful mechanism for Business Aviation Safety Managers and their teams.
Attention as to safety matters is a continuous struggle; repetition is a useful mechanism, but its effectiveness tends to diminish overtime. Creative variation of the message helps extend its useful life. However, real world experience is a clarion horn call for focus on this most important issue.
The AIN numbers are telling for they identify RUNWAY EXCURSIONS as the #1 probable cause of the fatal accidents, NBAA flagged it in the Committee’s top PREVENTABLE ACCIDENTS, and included five links providing resources for organizations to reduce this risk.
The second category, UNIQUE OPERATIONAL CONCERNS, incorporates a wide range of risks identified and the last, MITIGATION STRATEGIES, is headlined by Safety Management Systems. This discipline, as confirmed by NBAA, recognizes that its policies and procedures must be sized to be workable. The creator of this state-of-the-art regimen (ILO, ICAO, FAA) saw that an overly burdensome, complicated system would be self-defeating; if SMS essentially mandates a significant amount of the time of the Flight Safety Officer and team, it would fall into disuse. There are options which will make a methodology by minimizing time while maximizing risk identification. Someone, who has experience in similar settings, can lead the safety team to write manuals relevant to the specific flight mission, personnel, equipment, facilities, and culture.
Updated NBAA Top Safety Focus Areas Help Aviators Reduce Operational Risk
NEWS PROVIDED BY
January 22, 2024, 19:10 GMT
Jan. 22, 2024
[links from full 2024 NBAA Top Safety Focus Areas added.]
Home » Aircraft Operations » Safety » 2024 NBAA Top Safety Focus Areas
With the right approach to safety, business aircraft operators big and small can avoid incidents and operate with less risk. That’s why, every two years, the NBAA Safety Committee brings together some 80 experts from across the industry to review and revise its list of top safety focus areas.
The NBAA 2024 Top Safety Focus Areas fall into three categories. In THE FIRST, “PREVENTABLE ACCIDENTS,” the areas of focus are loss of control inflight, runway safety, controlled flight into terrain and ground operations and maintenance accidents.
According to Dan Boedigheimer, committee vice chair and CEO of Advanced Aircrew Academy, “These focus areas are based on the latest accident data. For example, loss of control inflight continues to be the No. 1 cause of fatal aviation accidents.”
- Review NBAA’s Loss of Control Inflight Resources
- Alone in the Cockpit – A Video About Loss of Control
- Loss of Control Inflight Education Video Series
- Review NBAA’s Runway Safety Resources
- Read NBAA’s Updated Reducing Runway Excursions in Business Aviation Guide
- Learn more about TALPA, a useful tool for determining runway conditions
- Learn about NBAA’s New Runway and Surface Safety Working Group
- View NBAA’s Airport Audit Tool
- Learn more about preventing CFIT from the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee (GA-JSC) Controlled Flight Into Terrain Working Group:
- GA-JSC Controlled Flight Into Terrain Working Group Report (June 2021) (PDF)
- GA-JSC Controlled Flight Into Terrain Report Appendices with Safety Enhancements, Standard Problem Statements, and Interventions (June 2021) (PDF)
- Watch the “PULL UP: Preventing Controlled Flight Into Terrain” education session from the 2022 NBAA National Safety Forum
- View the Safety Committee’s presentation from 2018 NBAA-BACE (PDF)
- View the Safety Committee’s updated accident analysis presentation from the 2019 NBAA Single-Pilot Safety Standdown
- Learn more about hangar and ground safety
- Learn about aircraft misfueling with Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) events
- Read the September/October 2020 Business Aviation Insider article “Handle With Care”
In the SECOND CATEGORY, “UNIQUE OPERATIONAL CONCERNS,” the focus areas include single-pilot operations, human factors (like regulatory, policy and procedural non-compliance), fitness for duty and workforce challenges.
“Single-pilot operations historically demonstrate significantly greater risk than multi-pilot operations, so they continue to be a focus,” said Boedigheimer. “Mental health has become a very important part of fitness for duty. And it’s increasingly important for operators to take steps to enable the smooth transfer of knowledge to a new generation of workers.”
- Review NBAA’s Single-Pilot Operations resources
- Risk Management Guide for Single-Pilot Light Business Aircraft, which includes a flight risk assessment tool specifically developed with single-pilot operations in mind
- NBAA Safety Resource: Procedural Non-Compliance: Learning the Markers and Mitigating the Risks (PDF)
- Read the 2023 Jan/Feb NBAA Business Aviation Insider article “Mental Wellness in Aviation Starts With I’M SAFE”
- Listen to NBAA News Hour Webinar: Taking a Closer Look at Mental Wellness in Aviation
- Review NBAA’s Medical Issues page
- Learn more about NBAA’s Workforce Initiatives
The focus areas in the final category, “MITIGATION STRATEGIES,” are safety management system (SMS) implementation, organizational support of safety expenditures and increasing the use and sharing of safety data.
“The FAA is likely to mandate SMS implementation for Part 135 operators this year, making now the time to get started for those who haven’t yet,” said Paul “BJ” Ransbury, Safety Committee chair and CEO of Aviation Performance Solutions. “At the same time, an SMS can also bring big benefits to smaller operators. With concise guidance, it’s possible to implement an SMS efficiently and cost-effectively. Operators of all sizes and complexities can benefit from a formalized risk-management program that complements and supports their operations.”
- View NBAA Safety Management Systems Information
- Read the 2023 May/June NBAA Business Aviation Insider article “Scaling SMS to Meet Your Operation’s Needs”
- Review NBAA’s Safety Leadership and Culture Resources
- Learn more about NBAA’s Safety Manager Certificate Program
- Review NBAA’s “Safety Risk Profiles: Required Equipment for Your Operation” Resource
- Review NBAA’s Safety Data Collection, Analysis and Sharing resource.
- Read the July/August 2023 NBAA Business Aviation Insider Article “Making the Move to Flight Data Monitoring”
- Read the May/June 2023 NBAA Business Aviation Insider Article “Realizing Safety Benefits from Data Sharing”
- View Business Aviation Insider infographic about the ASIAS Data Sharing Program (PDF)
The NBAA Safety Committee plans a range of efforts to spread the word about the 2024 Top Safety Focus Areas and increase adoption of best practices in these areas. Business aviators should keep an eye out for NBAA Flight Plan podcasts and NBAA News Hour webinars – and be sure to check out the safety presentations at regional NBAA events as well as the Single-Pilot Safety Standdown and National Safety Forum at this year’s NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE).
Fatal Business Jet Accidents Climbed Steeply in 2023
Fatalities soared for U.S.-registered jets but decreased for non-U.S.-registered ones
The Hawker 800XP that went off the end of the runway during an aborted tailwind takeoff from Colorado’s Aspen-Pitkin County Airport. (Photo: NTSB:ASE Airport Operations)
By GORDON GILBERT • Contributor – Accidents and Regulations
January 15, 2024
Six accidents involving U.S.-registered business jets killed 23 people in 2023 versus zero fatalities in 2022, according to preliminary statistics gathered by AIN. FIVE OCCURRED UNDER PART 91, KILLING 15, AND ONE CHARTER ACCIDENT ACCOUNTED FOR EIGHT FATALITIES LAST YEAR. Interestingly, the number of 2023 fatal accidents and fatalities was identical to those of 2021.
Three fatal accidents of non-U.S.-registered business jets killed nine last year, down from four such accidents and 17 fatalities in 2022.
Meanwhile, THE NUMBER OF U.S.-REGISTERED BUSINESS JET NONFATAL ACCIDENTS DECREASED BY MORE THAN HALF—11 IN 2023 VERSUS 26 IN 2022. There were no nonfatal mishaps involving Part 135 operations last year, compared with five in 2022. ONE 2023 NONFATAL ACCIDENT INVOLVED A PART 91K OPERATION—THE FIRST U.S. FRACTIONAL OPERATOR ACCIDENT RECORDED SINCE NOVEMBER 2021. Nonfatal accidents of non-U.S.-registered business jets ticked up by one, to six, from a year earlier.
The number of nonfatal and fatal accidents changed little over the last two-year period for U.S.-registered turboprops, but fatalities decreased from 37 in 2022 to 25 last year. All but one of the 10 fatal accidents last year involved Part 91 operations. Five people were killed in a single Part 135 crash in 2023. Fatalities increased in non-U.S.-registered turboprop accidents, from 26 in 2022 to 46 last year.
RUNWAY EXCURSIONS continued to be the most common type of incident or accident, with 71 recorded by turbine business aircraft last year. Turboprops were involved in 32, of which 12 were classified as accidents. Of the 39 excursions by business jets last year, 16 were classified as accidents, one of which was fatal to all four aboard the non-U.S. charter flight.
The August crash in Russia of a privately-operated Embraer Legacy 600 that killed all 10 on board is currently not included in our charts because it is believed the twinjet was downed by an air-to-air missile. Also not included in our charts is a U.S.-registered, privately-operated Gulfstream III that disappeared on December 12 shortly after taking off from Grenadine. At press time, there is no evidence indicating that the GIII was actually involved in an accident.
