NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt announced this past week that as part of the NTSB Most Wanted List Roundtable Series, the challenging matter of improving the safety of Alaska Part 135 Flight Operations will be highlighted at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Wendy Williamson Auditorium on Friday, September 6, 2019. Focusing on a theme of “Charting a Safer Course”, the Board will be highlighting such “unique to Alaska” aviation safety concerns as difficult and precipitous terrain, dynamic weather/environmental conditions, weather observation and forecasting capabilities, management and control of congested airspace, and airport/airspace infrastructure limitations.
We applaud the leadership of Chairman Sumwalt in his ongoing efforts to improve aviation safety in Alaska as demonstrated by his impassioned remarks during recent NTSB Public Hearings held both in Anchorage and Washington DC. Supported by Anchorage-based NTSB Field Office management personnel, investigations of aviation accidents in Alaska have resulted in the creation of numerous safety recommendations designed to lower the regional accident rate and better manage operational risk. We further recognize the day to day efforts put forth by the various FAA Certificate Management Team (CMT) managers and inspectors who provide oversight and surveillance of Alaska Part 135 Flight Operations in some of the most challenging operational conditions in the world.
It would be an egregious oversight not to mention the herculean efforts of the Alaskan-based pilots, flight dispatchers, mechanics, flight attendants, and ground personnel who work in environmental conditions that can best be described (by personal experience) as brutal. Ensuring that standard operating procedures are accomplished, aviation safety regulations are met, and operational safety risks are appropriately managed to a level ALARP are not dependent upon the time of day, weather, or temperature conditions for these dedicated aviation professionals.
Despite these commendable efforts and commonality of stakeholder resolve, there still remains a great deal to be accomplished in Alaska in order to ensure an “equivalent level of safety” with that currently existing in the Lower 48. Since 2008, the NTSB has investigated almost two hundred aircraft accidents in Alaska involving fixed-wing 14 CFR Part 135 Operators which have resulted in 74 fatalities. Despite even the most recent and well-publicized fatal hull loss accidents involving Alaskan Part 135 Operators, we may still not be taking the matter of ensuring an “equivalent level of safety” for the citizens of the 49th State as seriously as we should. Rationales such as “that’s Alaska”, “it’s a cost of doing business”, or “it has always been this way” can no longer be condoned or otherwise viewed as acceptable.
Merely creating an SMS Manual or implementing a flight data monitoring program is not going to improve safety levels within Alaska without the existence of a strong and pervasive safety culture where employees are genuinely encouraged/expected to raise safety reports without any fear whatsoever of retribution from their superiors. We cannot merely speak of improving CFIT training for flight crews if we don’t provide for an IFR-friendly infrastructure connecting IFR-capable airports with reliable weather reporting and forecasting capabilities. It all fits together as a system and only addressing one or two of the system elements is essentially meaningless.
As we look offshore and sometimes criticize the performance of foreign operators or technical capability of their flight crews, let us first direct our safety enhancement efforts inward to our own air transportation system in order to make a safe industry even safer and not just in the Lower 48. As a means of setting an example, we are confident through the leadership of Chairman Sumwalt that the upcoming NTSB Roundtable discussions at UAA in September will result in more than sound bites and box ticking.