Themes Are Familiar: Professionalism, Safety
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt brought his message of safety
and professionalism to the Women in Aviation International
conference in Orlando, FL Friday, as the keynote speaker for the
opening general session. His speech ranged from those familiar
themes to updates on NextGen, ADS-B, and other technological
advances in the industry.
Babbitt said when it comes to safety, the best way to spot large
events and to keep them from happening is to pick out the small
events first, and identify them. "Lately we've had a number of
events that I could say gave me some pause, some concern. I think
that focusing a little bit on what we have seen as lapses in
professionalism come to mind. In my opinion, we're going to
have to increase our vigilance, we're going to have to pay more
attention, we're going to have to focus, because America holds us,
as aviation professionals, to a very high standard. We have to get
it right the first time, and we have to get it right every
time."
Babbitt said in the previous two years over 2 billion people had
been carried on airlines safely, and that the nations runways have
never been safer. But like a surgeon, it doesn't matter how many
times he or she had performed an operation successfully, to the
patient, the operation that matters is the one he or she is
undertaking now. The passengers on an airplane, he said, feel the
same way. The flight that matters to them is the one they're
on.
"We have to continue to focus all of our attention on the
never-ending need for all of to do everything we can for safety,"
Babbitt said. "What I ask is for everyone in this business needs
step up and make this a front and center focus. And I can't think
of a better place to that than here. This is the most marvelous
mentoring center that I think I've ever been. So this is a great
place for us to take this message and send it." And, Babbitt said,
the effort needs to be ongoing. "We need to climb and maintain a
higher level of safety."
Babbitt said the takes "great exception" to the suggestion that
nothing is happening on rulemaking for crew rest and other issues.
"We have a lot of pieces in motion that have not only to do with
fatigue, but also training, how we do simulation training, new
things we can do with hi-fidelity training, those are all things
that are coming out in the form of new rule making."
But at the end of the day, Babbitt said, it all comes down to
the people who operate the machines. "as long as there are humans
in the loop, as long as they interact with machines, there is a
chance for error. we've got to take a very hard look at human
factors as we go forward." He said everyone has a responsibility to
create a safety culture. "Total perfection ... absolute 100 percent
perfection all the time, is not realistic. But we can make
perfection the norm, not the exception. And that should never stop
us from striving to climb to the next level of safety, or
professionalism."