Communication, Just Culture and Teamwork Keep Safety on Track

Oct. 14, 2025

The concept of a just safety culture, one driven by learning and improving from mistakes over punitive actions, continues to gain acceptance throughout business aviation flight departments. However, it is vital to “walk the talk” to avoid complacency or communications breakdowns from setting in.

To keep that safety focus on track, speakers at the 2025 NBAA Small Operators Symposium, held prior to the start of NBAA’s Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), emphasized the importance of strong leadership and buy-in from every person in the department committed to functioning as a unified, safety-focused team.

“Unfortunately, we tend to look at culture as an adornment or accessory, like a baseball cap or a tie with your coat,” said Dan Carroll, president and CEO of Paladin Jet. “Culture is not an accessory. It’s not the tie you wear with the suit. It’s the fabric of the suit.”

“You are what you accept,” added Tysen Pina, aviation department head at Kansas State University. “If you come into an organization, especially a small organization, and you make that safety culture a part of your daily life, then it’s more likely to grow.”

All must be vigilant against “drifting” from procedures, emphasized fractional captain Tim Lilley, which can quickly devolve into “normalization of deviation.” Lilley’s son, Samuel, was first officer of the PSA Airlines regional jet struck by a U.S. Army helicopter in a congested airspace corridor over Washington, DC earlier this year.

“You can identify drift by looking at the data,” he continued, “and all the data was there in the accident that killed my son. Everybody could access it, but nobody took a look and said, ‘Hey, we’ve had 85 evasive actions [in the same area near Reagan International Airport] in the last three years.'”

A flight operation’s safety culture must also extend beyond employees, added Steve Ragland, manager for flight operations at PepsiCo. Contract pilots, flight attendants and others must also feel they are part of the team, as Ragland saw firsthand while investigating a dramatic go-around involving one of the company’s aircraft.

While no one was injured, “being the chief pilot, my ears kind of perked up a little bit,” Ragland said. “I knew there was a flight attendant on there, and I was a little concerned that I hadn’t heard anything about the incident from her. So, I picked up the phone and called her. ‘I just want you to know that you are part of our safety system. Is there anything you would like to talk about?’

“And she just goes, ‘Oh, thank you for calling!'” Ragland continued. “She’d kept this inside for almost two weeks, but she said she really didn’t know how to talk about it or present it in such a fashion that it really benefited the whole organization.”

Pina also noted that all must be held to the same standard, recalling an incident from his early days at KSU. “It was sunset in Salida, and we had 20 aircraft on the ramp,” he said. “Being a new department head, I thought it looked great, and promoting our program is part of what I do, right? So, I pulled out my camera and took a great wide angle shot with our hangars in the background.”

He soon found out one of his CFIs had submitted a safety report for his use of electronic devices on the ramp, without a safety spotter. “What do you do? That’s exactly the culture that [I was] preaching, and nobody’s above it. I told him I appreciated that he came to me and [held] me accountable to make sure I didn’t become part of the statistic.”