The Greater Washington Business Aviation Association (GWBAA) held its Third Annual Safety Stand-Down on May 7 at the NTSB Training Center in Ashburn, VA. The attendees included pilots, maintenance technicians and other representatives from corporate flight departments and aviation support businesses in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and from areas throughout the country.

Doug Carr, vice president of safety for the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), gave the opening remarks and was followed by Jim Burin, director of technical programs for the Flight Safety Foundation, who spoke about today's aviation safety challenges.

"A safety culture is the single most important item for any aviation operation and the one item that you can't buy," said Burin. "It must be supported by senior management."

This year's event included three breakout sessions. Bob Hobbi, owner of ServiceElements, spoke about achieving superior levels of customer service for FBOs, charter operators and flight departments. John Rahilly, principal of Rahilly Aviation Associates, gave a presentation on how to obtain the best price and highest quality service when having an aircraft serviced. Additionally, the NTSB's Dr. Paul Schuda gave attendees a tour of the reconstructed portion of the fuselage of TWA Flight 800 and explained how the accident aircraft was reconstructed.

Captain Alfred Haynes, of United Airlines Flight 232, was the keynote speaker. In 1989 Haynes and his crew crash landed a crippled DC-10-10 in Sioux City, Iowa with no hydraulics. Although there were 111 fatalities, there were also 184 survivors. During his presentation, which included the video of the accident together with ATC recordings, Haynes credited Crew Resource Management (CRM) with limiting the number of fatalities and praised everyone involved in the accident: pilots, flight attendants, maintenance personnel, air traffic controllers and especially the Sioux City emergency response crews who responded to the accident.

"This year's Safety Stand-Down built on the success of our last two stand-downs and was an unqualified success," said Paige Kroner, president of GWBAA. "My thanks to all of our sponsors, speakers and volunteers who contributed to that success."

This year's sponsors included Bombardier, Dassault Falcon, Gulfstream, Satcom Direct, Welsch Aviation, Sharp Details, FlightSafety, NBAA, Signature Flight Support, Universal Weather & Aviation and Landmark Aviation. The stand-down is eligible for credit towards NBAA's Certified Aviation Manager (CAM) qualification.

FMI: www.gwbaa.com