The non-profit, U.S.-based Flight Safety Foundation (Booth A091) continues to advocate worldwide for increased information sharing in all areas of business aviation safety, among other initiatives. Headlining the foundation’s efforts is its three-year Global Safety Information Project (GSP), launched last year to promote data collection, sharing and analysis of diverse elements of safety information. Now approximately halfway through its planned agenda, GSIP is designed to help clarify best practices for collecting and analyzing safety data for participants in the program.

To date, GSIP has held focus groups in the Americas and Asia Pacific, but FSF president and CEO Jon Beatty told AIN the lessons learned are applicable worldwide. He said, “We’ve been working with the Pan American ICAO [International Council of Aviation Authorities] group for several years, so we’re most familiar with them. We chose to focus on Asia Pacific because of the rate of growth. But once we’ve completed the project, we’ll apply what we’ve learned to all other regions of the world. We’ve been keeping EASA in the loop, as well as authorities in the Middle East.”

Attending the EBACE show for the FSF is v-p of business operations Susan Lausch. She said that approximately half of the Flight Safety Foundation membership consists of business aircraft operators, and in its plans to expand the collection and analysis of safety information, European input is not only welcome, but highly desirable. The advisory committee is always on the lookout for worldwide participation and anyone interested in participating is encourage to stop by the FSF booth and contact Lausch, or visit the website and reach out to make contact.

By year-end, FSF plans to introduce GSIP “toolkits” to help operators make the most of the safety information that is available through the shared information of GSIP. Toolkits will also help aviation authorities with their programs. Frank Jackman, FSF v-p of communications said, “They’ll take the form of manuals, and ‘how-tos’ for processes and procedures, helping operators define what data to collect, how best to collect it, what has been collected elsewhere, and so on.” Beatty added that the toolkits will vary in complexity – some designed for smaller entities, even single-aircraft operators, while others can be more complex, intended for large corporate flight departments, even governmental flight operations.

Protecting Personnel

In addition to facilitating the information-sharing program, FSF is also instrumental in promoting safety-information-protection programs. The object is to ensure that aviation personnel from around the world who report safety information need not worry about incrimination or certificate sanctions from their respective controlling agencies, such as the U.S. FAA or Europe’s EASA. The Flight Safety Foundation works with ICAO’s Safety Information Protection Task Force to ensure that the flow of information is not stanched by fear of reprisal. FSF supports this principle in accordance with guidance from ICAO Attachment E to Annex 13, as well as by providing a toolkit for governmental aviation controlling agencies to develop voluntary safety reporting systems.

The Flight Safety Foundation is proud of its collaboration with ICAO and the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) on their Fatigue Management Guide for General Aviation Operators of Large and Turbojet Aeroplanes. The guide is based on the work of ICAO’s Fatigue Risk Management Systems Task Force and includes input from experts in business aviation operations. The 96-page report is available on the FSF website as well as the IBAC and ICAO sites.

Last month, FSF participated in the Fatigue Management Approaches Symposium at ICAO’s fatigue risk management system conference in Montreal. The foundation also conducted its own Business Aviation Safety Summit (BASS) from May 5-6 in Austin, Texas, hosting a large crowd of attendees, exhibitors and industry sponsors. Looking ahead, FSF will host its annual Network Dinner on July 28 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Finally, the foundation’s largest annual event, its International Air Safety Summit, will be held in Dubai November 14-16, hosted by Emirates airline. For details on that meeting, and all activity supported by the Flight Safety Foundation, visit its website www.flightsafety.org.