NBAA National Safety Forum Wraps Up With Insights From NTSB

Oct. 24, 2024

NBAA’s three-day 2024 National Safety Forum concluded with a recognition of safe business operations and an insightful conversation about how business aircraft operators can benefit from partnering with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Taking place amid the 2024 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), the final session included top industry safety leaders such as new NBAA Safety Committee Chair Dan Boedigheimer and the newest NTSB Board Member J. Todd Inman.

Leading off the session, NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen reminded attendees of NBAA’s priority on safety. “Safety is not just a core value at NBAA, not just our North Star, but something that is embodied in every part of business aviation.”

Inman, who came to the NTSB after holding several top positions at the Department of Transportation, sat down with NBAA Chief Operating Officer Chris Rocheleau, a former FAA chief of staff, to discuss NTSB’s work and its ongoing partnership with NBAA.

“We need business aviation to work,” Inman said. “You deliver critical goods. People’s lives are being saved in some of the work you do, and you’re flying executives and repair people. We want to try to find a way to be a better partner and to engage.”

SMS: Not Just a Checklist

Inman said the board is aware that many business aircraft operators are standing up safety management systems (SMS) for the first time, in the wake of the FAA’s new rule published last April expanding SMS to Part 135 on-demand operators, certain Part 21 certificate holders and 91.147 air tour operations. “We need to learn from this. SMS is not just a checklist. In many of our investigations where we find that SMS is not evident – it didn’t play a direct factor, but it’s more prominent whenever it’s not there. We see more investigations without SMS. If you’re taking SMS and building that into your culture, it’s critically important.”

Inman pointed out that an SMS should be scalable. “If you have 100 pieces of equipment, the SMS should not be the same as someone who’s flying two pieces or one piece.”
The nation’s transportation system is as safe as it’s ever been, he said, but there’s still work to do. For example, he said, leveraging the increasing amount of operational aviation data that can be used to make aviation even safer. “We need more data, but what we need is to understand how you’re using that data.”

Reaching Out to Part 135 Operators

Another agenda item on the board’s to-do list is Part 135 operators.

“We really want to work a lot harder on Part 135,” Inman said. “And I think that’s going to be the next big focus. We’ve been very lucky in the Part 121 area. The next place we’ve really got to attack is Part 135 – not because there’s issues there – because there’s a lot of unique operating environments that I think that we can provide some pretty good recommendations.”

Finally, Inman offered an invitation to engage directly with business aviation operators during face-to-face meetings. “Anytime people come to DC, we want to hear from you,” he said. “Our job in advocacy is to be hearing from you, not just talking about our recommendations.”

Safety Award Recognition

In addition, the 2024 recipients of NBAA’s prestigious Flying Safety Awards were named at the session, recognizing 50, 60 and 75 years of safe operations.

That was followed by recognition of all 13 recipients of the 2024 NBAA Dr. Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award, honoring individual aviation professionals – such as pilots, maintenance technicians, flight attendants and dispatchers – who have demonstrated outstanding professionalism and leadership in support of aviation safety in the business aviation industry.