Alexandria, VA, July 21, 2008 — In an aviation safety first, the Flight Safety Foundation’s CAAG (Controlled Flight Into Terrain and Approach and Landing Accident Reduction Action Group) brought its internationally regarded FSF Approach and Landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) Tool Kit workshop to Tripoli, Libya last week.
Libyan aviation professionals said that this was the first time a non-government international aviation safety event has been held in Libya. The workshop was hosted by Afriqiyah Airways of Libya and organized by Capt. Samir Abussada, a Libyan commercial pilot.
More than 50 aviation professionals from Chad, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia attended the workshop. They represented civil aviation authorities, air traffic management organizations and several airlines in the region. The workshop was conducted by Jim Burin of Flight Safety Foundation; Dave Carbaugh of The Boeing Company; John Long of the Air Line Pilots Association, International; Kyle Olsen, formerly of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration; and Carlos Limon of Mexicana Airlines and president of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations.
“From its founding more than 60 years ago, the mission of the Flight Safety Foundation has been to spread safety information and tools as widely as possible,” said Amb. Edward W. Stimpson, chairman of the FSF board of governors. “When we learned that this was the first visit of a non-government international aviation safety group to Libya, we were reminded again of the importance of this mission. Aviation safety knows no boundaries, and this industry benefits as a whole when safety tools such as the ALAR Tool Kit can be spread as widely as possible.”
The CAAG workshops provide recommendations on how to reduce the risk of approach and landing accidents through the use of the ALAR Tool Kit, a user friendly CD-based product containing PowerPoint briefings, videos, checklists, and reference material. The tool kit is a consolidation of the data, products, findings, conclusions and recommendations of 11 years of work by over 300 international aviation safety experts. This was the 30th ALAR workshop that the Foundation has presented worldwide.
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Flight Safety Foundation is an independent, non-profit, international organization engaged in research, auditing, education, advocacy and publishing to improve aviation safety. The Foundation’s mission is to pursue the continuous improvement of global aviation safety and the prevention of accidents. www.flightsafety.org
Contact: Emily McGee, Director of Communications, 1-703-739-6700, ext. 126; mcgee@flightsafety.org