Premium On Safety - Issue 11, 2013 - 1

PREMIUM ON SAFETy
ISSUE 11 yEAR 2013

IN THIS ISSUE
Best Practices: The Hazard of Automation Over-reliance 03
Accident Prevention: Knowledge Is Key to Combating Lithium Battery Fires 04
Flight Vis: Next Generation Safety Tools for Business Aviation 05
ASI Message: Super Automation Revolution 05
SMS Corner: Flight Risk Assessment Tools 06
Safety Spotlight: Texting and Flying 07

Emergency Response Plan
A MESSAGE FROM USAIG
Greetings! Thoughtfully gauging
conditions and the resultant degree
of difficulty before going flying is a
well established practice. The focus
used to be on pilots instinctively
drawing from experience to do
this through individual habits. The
wide use of flight risk assessment
tools nowadays is a much more
standard practice that broadens
understanding and control of
risks. Good stuff, but gaining those
benefits takes work. Effective risk
assessment tools with strong buy-in
from pilots are invariably ones that
have been carefully customized
into the operations where they are
used. The aim of this issue’s article
on pre-flight risk assessment, and
indeed the whole newsletter, is to
fuel beneficial and constructive
thinking to boost your safety
processes. Fly smart and fly safe!

Paul Ratté
Director of Aviation Safety
Programs, USAIG

The First Hour
By PAUL RATTÉ

vice president for Claims and head of the ERP
assist team at USAIG notes, “We find operators
who take emergency response preparation seriously have noticeably strong safety cultures. It’s
unclear which comes first, the culture or the ERP
commitment, but the link is unmistakable.” Many
people both inside and outside the flight department need to work together in an emergency
response. The process of forging those connections ahead of time helps everyone understand
each other’s roles, capabilities, and risks.
Whether an ERP is
developed in-house or
Your accident protocol must work perfectly anytime
through one of many
services available, it’s
aircraft are flying, and that takes careful thought.
important to note that
real confidence in it, as well as culture-building
that have particular application in the first hour
benefits, come only from having the group that will
after an accident is reported. A follow-on article
use the plan fit it into your organization collaborain the next issue will look at additional concerns
tively. A plan that sits on the shelf or is unknown to
further down an accident timeline.
some of its participants accomplishes little.
ERPs are meant to efficiently:
First word of an accident
- shift you from normal to response mode
This can come from any source, to any point
after an accident is reported,
in your organization. The challenge is being sure
- guide proper care for affected people,
you’ll properly handle a call like that, no matter
- minimize negative collateral effects from
when or where it comes. This usually involves
the mishap, and
having a fill-in type accident report form posi- facilitate learning from the event and a
tioned at points where an accident call is likely,
safe return to normal.
or to which you can drive such calls. Many flight
A good plan will do those things when needed,
departments get the form right, but are less
but there are also recurring benefits to keeping
thorough deploying it. Are all people who answer
your ERP visible and ready. John Watson, senior
You hope to never use it, but if your operation
is involved in an accident, you’ll value every bit
of thought, preparation and validation put into
making your Emergency Response Plan (ERP)
ready. An ERP is just one among many things
needed to pass audits and meet requirements,
but the stakes are insidiously high on this one.
Have you given enough consideration to its
form, fit, and function across your organization? If not, a really bad day could get a whole
lot worse. This article discusses ERP elements

(continued on page 2)

Premium On Safety - Issue 11, 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Premium On Safety - Issue 11, 2013