PeterP

I'm working with an organisation dedicated to essential/humanitarian/ emergency aviation. We are trying to work on high-level policies that can improve safety and sustainability in this sector. What do you think the main issues are?

To concentrate your minds, over the past few weeks, more people died in the remote aviation sector than in the war in Afghanistan.

Piltdown Man

Use well paid, properly trained, experienced pilots flying well maintained, high powered single engined turbine aircraft. Don't criticise the pilots when they return with an uncompleted mission and don't expect them to fly when the weather is bad. But I have to be honest - phrases like "high-level policies", "safety and sustainability in this sector" and "the main issues" scare me fartless. I could be wrong but these are words associated with parish council box ticking PC organisations type who have a slender grasp of reality.

Best of luck,

PM

Genghis the Engineer

(1) Quality of people, maintained and continuously improved through training, experience, rest, retention and good CRM. Quality determined by ability to do the job - not religious or political affiliation or willingness to work for peanuts.

(2) Quality of information available to those good people, if necessarily maintained in-house with direct access of crews to the information providers. This covers sites, aircraft, met, local operating restrictions...

(3) Acceptance of captain's decision if it's not as demanded by mission requirements. Measures to assure crews that if their non-delivery fails a humanitarian need, there will be follow-ups ASAP so the mission still happens, safely, eventually.

(4) Minimisation of daft management jargon

(5) Management spending enough time at the operational end that they understand what's going on, and operational staff believe this.

(6) Serious effort into the quality and selection of aircraft & equipment - best for purpose, not fitting expediency or political demands.

(7) Robust risk assessment procedures with vertical buy-in.

G

CaptainBernie

Flight Safety Foundation has a relatively new program called Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS). The UN World Food Program was one of several organizations championing the development of the Standard. The program is based on solid QMS and IOSA process standards. It has a risk-reduction component and its audits schema is adjusted for the size of aircraft and type of environment operated in.

Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS) | Flight Safety Foundation

URL deleted - shouldn't be too hard to track down relevant sites. - JT

Piltdown Man

Father Dick Byrne

Peter,

You have a private message...