The FAA held its 2022 Spring Air Safety Meeting in Alaska Wednesday with more than 80 pilots, operators and mechanics in attendance. Participants discussed lessons learned from the 2021 season, and recommendations and reminders ahead of the Spring air tour operation season.
“Like all of our efforts in Alaska, this is truly a collaborative event to hear the good, the bad and the ugly. It doesn’t work without our partners,” said Jacki Holzman, acting regional administrator for the FAA’s Alaskan Region. “This is a collection of subject matter experts with more than two centuries of knowledge, not just about aviation but aviation in Alaska.”
Along with the FAA, attendees heard from speakers with the National Transportation Safety Board, Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak and Sitka, the Juneau International Airport, Taquan Air and the Tongass Air Pilots Association. Topics included the importance of pilot reports (often referred to as PIREPs), the dangers of wrong surface operations (a landing or departure on the wrong runway, taxiway or airport), potentially life-saving aviation safety survival tips, and an emphasis on personal responsibility, inspections and aircraft maintenance for newcomers and experienced pilots alike.
“Follow a checklist,” said David Longan, principle maintenance inspector for the FAA’s Juneau Flight Standards District Office. “Even if you’ve flown 1,000 times before and especially if you’ve done this 1,000 times before. You don’t want to get complacent with preflight checks.”
One presenter shared how their company used the pandemic to reevaluate operations and proactively implement a Safety Management System (SMS). SMS is a comprehensive, intentional, data-driven approach to risk management, mitigation and aviation safety.
After performing a gap analysis, they identified a need for controls and corrective action plans in the business. The company worked with a “readily available and responsive” FAA certification management team (CMT) last year and became one of three Part 135 operators in Alaska to have an FAA-accepted SMS program.
Managers with the Juneau Air Traffic Control Tower and the Juneau International Airport expect air traffic to return to pre-pandemic levels with more than 800 flights per day in the city of Juneau alone. Despite the expected increase and an eagerness to return to normalcy, the meeting hosts agreed that everyone in Alaska’s aviation community should remain vigilant.
“We can’t make up for lost time by making poor decisions,” said Karen Gattis, supervisory aviation technical systems specialist with the FAA’s Alaskan region. “An accident in one part of Alaska affects all of Alaska.”
The Air Safety Meeting hosts look forward to returning to in-person meetings later this year after the end of Alaska’s air tour season.
The FAA has launched various efforts to improve Alaskan aviation safety including updated aviation charts and the installation of eight new Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS) across the state. In 2021, the FAA undertook a sweeping examination of safety challenges specific to flying in Alaska. In October 2021, the FAA released recommendations based on the findings of that review.
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