March 5 – March 4, 2010 marked a significant milestone in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) efforts overseeing the safety of the nation’s commercial space transportation industry with the 201st FAA licensed commercial rocket launch. The vehicle carried into orbit an environmental satellite to improve weather forecasting and help monitor environmental events. FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation safety inspectors were present to monitor operations of the Delta IV booster.

Beginning in the late 1980s, all of FAA’s licensed launches have been completed without any fatalities, serious injuries, or significant property damage to the uninvolved public. This spotless record, spanning over two decades, underscores the total commitment to safe operations throughout the FAA’s full range of activities.

“With, the retirement this year of NASA’s Space Shuttle, the nation will now look to the commercial space industry to take on added responsibilities, including commercial human space flights and replenishing equipment and technologies at the International Space Station,” said FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation George Nield. “Americans can feel confident that FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation will be on the job monitoring and overseeing the safety of these new and exciting activities,” he added.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 5, 2010 Washington, DC – National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman today encouraged the sleep research and healthcare community to continue their efforts to educate transportation policy makers of the dangers of fatigue in all modes of transportation.

Speaking before the annual conference of the National Sleep Foundation in Washington, D.C., Chairman Hersman remarked that fatigue has been a concern for the Board since the creation of the agency in 1967 and it has been an issue on the Board’s Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements since the list was established in 1990.

“The work of the National Sleep Foundation and other organizations and individuals is critical to improving transportation safety policy,” said Chairman Hersman. “The NTSB is interested and willing to partner with you in developing a greater awareness of fatigue.”

Hersman highlighted a number of accident investigations across all transportation modes that included fatigue as the probable cause or a contributing factor to accidents. As a result, the Board has made safety recommendations that range from deploying fatigue detection systems to reduce the occurrence of accidents to installing electronic on-board recorders that collect and maintain hours of service data on vehicle operators.

“We can’t always prove fatigue as a cause of an accident, but the frequency with which we now routinely document the presence of fatigue-related factors in transportation operations is alarming,” Hersman stated.

Hersman remarked that while there are still no definitive tools to conclusively identify the degree to which a person is fatigued, the major challenge is to ensure that all those in transportation report to work rested and fit for duty — for their own safety and for the safety of those they are transporting.

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Press Release-March 4, 2010 The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a public Board meeting to consider a study on what effect the introduction of glass cockpits into small light general aviation airplanes is having on the safety record of those
aircraft.

In 2000, almost all new single engine light airplanes were manufactured with conventional analog flight instruments. Today almost all new light planes come equipped with digital flight display avionic systems, also known as “glass cockpits.” The enhanced function and information capabilities of these systems represent a significant change and potential improvement in the way general aviation pilots monitor information needed to control their aircraft.

The NTSB initiated this study to determine if the transition to glass cockpits in light aircraft would improve the safety record of those planes.

For more information…

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is holding its 35th Annual Aviation Forecast Conference, “Looking Ahead in Aviation: Rational Rebound or Irrational Instability.” The FAA will release its Aerospace Forecast Fiscal Years 2010-2030, which provides the latest data about activity and growth in aviation products and services, as well as future estimates.

The first day of the conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. and will feature remarks by Secretary LaHood and FAA Administrator Babbitt starting at 12:00 Noon. American Airlines Chairman, President and CEO Gerard J Arpey will keynote the luncheon at 1:00 p.m. The latest agenda including a list of panels cane be found at:http://www.faa.gov/news/conferences_events/aviation_forecast_2010/agenda/

Media wishing to attend the conference should RSVP to Hank Price, hank.price@faa,gov.

Montreal – Press Release:The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced the aviation safety performance for 2009 showing that the year’s accident rate for Western-built jet aircraft as the second lowest in aviation history. 

The 2009 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jet aircraft) was 0.71. That is equal to one accident for every 1.4 million flights. This is a significant improvement of the 0.81 rate recorded in 2008 (one accident for 1.2 million flights).  The 2009 rate was the second lowest in aviation history, just above the 2006 rate of 0.65. Compared to 10 years ago, the accident rate has been cut 36% from the rate recorded in 2000.

In absolute numbers, 2009 saw the following results

• 2.3 billion people flew safely on 35 million flights (27 million jet, 8 million turboprop)
  
• 19 accidents involving western built jet aircraft compared to 22 in 2008
  
• 90 accidents (all aircraft types, Eastern and Western built) compared to 109 in 2008
  
• 18 fatal accidents (all aircraft types) compared to 23 in 2008
  
• 685 fatalities compared to 502 in 2008

“Safety is the industry’s number one priority. Even in a decade during which airlines lost an average of US$5 billion per year, we still managed to improve our safety record. Last year, 2.3 billion people flew safely. But every fatality is a human tragedy that reminds us of the ultimate goal of zero accidents and zero fatalities,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

IATA member airlines outperformed the industry average with a Western-built jet hull accident rate of 0.62. That rate is equal to one accident for every 1.6 million flights. “In 2009 IATA marked an important milestone in aviation safety. From April 1, all IATA members were on the registry of the IATA Operational Safety Audit – a testimony to our commitment to the highest global standards for operational safety. IOSA is the global standard. Today 332 carriers are on the registry, including IATA’s 231 members,” said Bisignani.

There are significant regional differences in the accident rate.

• North Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had zero western-built jet hull losses in 2009
  
• North America (0.41) and Europe (0.45) performed better than the global average of 0.71
  
• Asia-Pacific’s accident rate worsened to 0.86 in 2009 (compared to 0.58 in 2008) with three accidents involving carriers from the region.
  
• The Middle East and North Africa region saw its accident rate rise to 3.32 (compared to 1.89 in 2008) with four accidents involving carriers from the region.
  
• Africa had an accident rate of 9.94, significantly higher than their 2008 rate of 2.12. Africa has once again the worst rate of the world.  There were five Western-built jet hull losses with African carriers in 2009. African carriers are 2% of global traffic, but 26% of global western-built jet hull losses.

An analysis of the causes of the 2009 accidents focuses on three main areas:

• Runway excursions continue to be a challenge and accounted for 26% of all accidents in 2009.  However, the total number of runway excursions dropped by 18% (23 vs 28 in 2008). IATA released its Runway Excursion Risk Reduction Toolkit in 2009, with an updated version to be produced later this year. The toolkit is incorporated with IATA’s broad ranging safety data tools in the IATA Global Safety Information Center (GSIC), a customizable website which will enable users to extract relevant safety information through a single application and enable them to perform performance benchmark and conduct trend analysis and risk management.
  
• Ground damage accounted for 10% of all accidents in 2009. To improve safety and reduce this US$4 billion annual industry cost, IATA introduced the IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO). Built on similar principles to IOSA, ISAGO is the industry’s first global standard for the oversight and auditing of ground handling companies. The first audits took place in 2008. To date a total of 149 audits have been conducted.
  
•  While runway excursions and ground damage were the main categories of accidents, pilot handling was noted as a contributing factor in 30% of all accidents. IATA’s Training & Qualification Initiative (ITQI) is pushing for harmonizing a competency-based approach focused on training real skills while addressing threats presented by accident/incident reports and flight data collection and reporting. IATA will also work through ICAO to develop a Fatigue Risk Management System as part of the Safety Management System. This will be a new process to systematically manage crew fatigue taking into account changes in aircraft capabilities and airline operations.

These initiatives are consistent with IATA’s comprehensive Six-point Safety Program which focuses on infrastructure safety, safety data management and analysis, operations, Safety Management Systems, maintenance and auditing.

“Safety is a constant challenge. Having made aviation the safest way to travel, further improvements will come only with careful data analysis. We must understand the underlying safety risk trends, not just from the handful of accidents each year, but by bringing together and analyzing data from millions of safe flights. The IATA Global Safety Information Center was launched in December 2009 for just that purpose. Going forward our goal is to work with other organizations and governments involved in aviation safety to add to the database and drive even more improvements,” Said Bisignani.