Loss of Control Is Top Bizav Safety Concern

Loss of control in flight (LOCI) and runway excursions were the uppermost concerns in the National Business Aviation Association's (NBAA) safety committee’s data-driven third annual list of top safety focus areas, released on March 19. According to the NBAA, no type of accident in the last decade has caused more commercial and business aviation fatalities than LOCI. The NTSB also targeted LOCI on its 2015 “Most Wanted” list of safety issues, citing it as a possible factor in more than 40 percent of fixed-wing general aviation accidents from 2001 to 2011. Compounding business aviation’s challenge in addressing LOCI is the sector’s wide range of aircraft types and operating parameters, which work against any single solution for reducing LOCI occurrences.

The NBAA also highlighted several other safety hazards, including the most common, runway excusions. Despite efforts to reduce the runway excursion rate, the frequency of this type of accident has changed little over the last decade, hovering around 3.6 per one million flights—some 60 percent higher than the corresponding commercial aviation rate. Other noted safety concerns included airspace complexities; birds and wildlife; distraction and technology management; fatigue; ground-handling collisions; procedural non-compliance; and single-pilot task saturation.

In developing its 2015 safety advocacy strategy, the safety committee also identified five basic safety elements—dubbed “foundations for safety”—that operators need to support. These include professionalism, safety leadership, risk management, fitness for duty and technical excellence. The committee said each is critically important to address the complex business aviation environment and should form part of an overall systematic approach to safety risk management.