NBAA Debuts New Resource to Enhance Small Flight Department Safety

Oct. 9, 2024

NBAA recently published “Five Simple Steps to a Smaller Flight Operation,” a new resource developed by NBAA’s Domestic Operations Committee’s Small Flight Department Subcommittee, which is meant to provide small flight operations – generally those with one or two aircraft and just a few employees – a simple guide to mitigating risk and improving safety in the operations.

“Safety is a core value to all business aviation operations, but when we looked at existing safety resources for flight departments, we found several with hundreds of pages, many of which aren’t applicable to small organizations,” said David Keys, chief pilot at Peace River Citrus Products and chair of the Domestic Operations Committee. “The Small Flight Department Subcommittee focused on providing small operations on an easier path on how to mitigate risk and be a safer operation.”

The five steps are:

1. Implement briefings and an aviation safety action program
2. Implement flight risk assessment
3. Adopt standard operating procedures and develop an emergency response plan
4. Implement a safety management process
5. Implement safety audits and flight data monitoring

The guide provides detailed advice and additional resources for implementing these five steps.

“An operation can implement one or all five of these steps and can do so with very little upfront time or resources,” Keys explained.

Top industry experts will share their own perspectives on these five steps and more at the NBAA Small Operator Symposium, taking place on Oct. 21 prior to the 2024 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE). Learn more about NBAA-BACE.