Partners and Programs:
Partners and Programs:

FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

701 N. Fairfax Street, Suite 250,
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Phone: +1 703 739 6700 Fax: +1 703 739 6708

Podcasts

Welcome to the Foundation’s podcast page. Below you will find interviews with safety experts from around the industry on a range of topics of interest to aviation safety professionals. New podcasts will be added as they are recorded. The views expressed in the podcasts are those of the speakers, and not necessarily those of the Foundation.

If you have a topic that you believe would be of interest to the aviation community, please get in touch with Vice President, Global Programs, Greg Marshall at marshall@flightsafety.org. Interviews can be conducted in-person at our head office or via Skype.

News, Accident Investigation

NTSB Operations Return to Normal

Normal operations resumed Monday at the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) after a 35-day partial shutdown that saw 367 of the agency’s 397 employees furloughed.

The NTSB said that during the partial government shutdown, there were 22 accidents — including 15 aviation accidents that resulted in 21 fatalities — to which the agency did not dispatch investigators; all 22 accidents now require investigative action. The delay means that “perishable evidence may have been lost, which potentially could prevent determination of probable cause for those accidents,” the NTSB said.

During the shutdown, the NTSB halted work on 1,815 ongoing general aviation and limited aviation safety investigations and postponed the scheduled release of its 2019–2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements as well as a board meeting that was to have determined the probable cause of a March 2017 runway excursion in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Release of the Most Wanted List is now scheduled for Feb. 4. No new date has been announced for the runway excursion meeting.

Other meetings and investigative work involving aviation accidents and accidents in other forms of transportation also were interrupted, the NTSB said.

In addition to the 367 furloughed employees, 26 others were exempt from furloughs, and four investigators were recalled to work without pay in support of investigations of three international aviation accidents, the NTSB said.

FSF Editorial Staff. January 28, 2019

News, Safety Regulation

ALPA Urges President Trump to End Government Shutdown

The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), the largest pilots’ union in the United States, is urging President Donald Trump to take steps to immediately end the partial government shutdown “that is adversely affecting the safety, security and efficiency of our National Airspace System.”

The shutdown began Dec. 22, with the president and Congress unable to agree on legislation authorizing further funding for a number of federal agencies. Trump wants the legislation to include $5 billion to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico; Democrats, joined by some Republicans, oppose provisions for the wall.
The Department of Transportation, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Department of Homeland Security are among the affected agencies.

“When any of their responsibilities are placed on pause due to a shutdown, there are safety, security and efficiency gaps that immediately emerge,” ALPA President Capt. Joe DePete said in a letter to Trump last week.

“For example, at the … FAA, there are fewer safety inspectors than are needed in order to ensure the air traffic control infrastructure is performing at its peak levels of performance. There are also airline and aircraft manufacturing oversight activities that either stop or are significantly reduced. These safety and oversight inspections will potentially allow for the introduction of safety issues that put passengers and airline crews at risk.”

The letter added that air traffic controllers, airspace system maintenance personnel and airline passenger security personnel are working without pay and under “increasingly difficult financial pressures.”

FSF Editorial Staff. January 7, 2019