I was very pleased to have attended an aviation safety conference this past week in London hosted by aviation insurance industry leaders Willis Towers Watson and Allianz. The conference featured presentations by our good friends and professional colleagues Fuad Sharuji and Sheikh Ahmad from Malaysia Airlines. The subject was their response to and lessons learned from the 2014 MH370 and MH17 tragedies.
This was my third time listening to these dedicated aviation safety professionals on this subject. The intensity of their first-hand observations of not one, but two, arguably concurrent and clearly unprecedented organizational tragedies was riveting.
While now four years in the past, the aviation security challenges faced by aviation industry stakeholders in optimizing a crisis management plan, emergency preparedness, operational control, and flight monitoring remain paramount. In addition to this, inter/intra governmental cooperation and communication, ICAO and Member State safety and security responsibilities, and enterprise risk management processes are just as relevant today as they were in 2014 and will be throughout the foreseeable future.
The message as unselfishly delivered by MAS should be heard by all aviation industry stakeholders as clear evidence of what can go so terribly wrong in an abbreviated time frame and, more importantly, what we can do to effectively manage the resultant risk. Thank you to both Fuad and Sheikh for sharing!