Also Thanks FAA Investigators For Helping To Reduce
Backlog
On Wednesday, National
Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark V. Rosenker reiterated
the Safety Board's commitment to making aviation, a safe industry,
even safer... while acknowledging that last year saw a slight
uptick in general aviation related fatalities.
In a speech to General Aviation Air Safety Investigators
Advanced Technical Workshop in Wichita, KS, Rosenker said that with
general aviation contributing more than $150 billion to the United
States' economic output, the Board has revised its investigative
strategy over recent years to maximize the safety payback of its
work.
With about 1,900 general aviation accidents and serious
incidents a year, the Board's 43 regional investigators cannot
travel to every fatal or serious injury accident. Rosenker thanked
those among the 3,400 Federal Aviation Administration inspectors
who have assisted with on-scene accident documentation in general
aviation investigations.
"By conserving our precious time traveling to and from the sites
of accidents in which there is no obvious safety payback, we are
able to reduce our backlog, produce more timely reports, conduct
more thorough investigations on the accidents that have safety
issues, and develop more substantive GA accident reports, special
investigations and recommendations."
The fruits of that strategy were realized this past year, with a
major regional study released on emergency medical services flight
operations in January, and a significant corporate jet icing
accident report issued in May. Regional investigators also traveled
overseas to two Cessna 208B inflight icing events.
Rosenker also acknowledged the NTSB's annual safety report, issued last week, that shows
while the number of persons who died in all civil aviation
accidents in the United States declined in 2005, general aviation
rose from 558 to 562.
To combat that problem, Rosenker said that over the next few
months and years, NTSB regional investigators will look into a
number of broad GA safety issue areas, including air tour
helicopter operations, human factors in glass cockpits, the aging
of GA aircraft structures, and the quickly expanding industry of
Very Light Jets.
"We are partners in this effort," Rosenker said, "and I look
forward to working with you during the next two years of my
Chairmanship on making our safe skies even safer."