Sessions Will Focus On Oversight, Responsibilities Of Public Aircraft Operators

The NTSB has released the preliminary agenda for a two-day Public Aircraft Oversight Safety Forum which will begin at 0900 EST on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 and continue through Thursday, December 1st. NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman will chair the forum and all five Board Members will participate. The forum is open to all and free to attend.

NTSB Chair Hersman

Public aircraft are operated by a federal, state, or local government for the purpose of fulfilling governmental functions such as firefighting, search and rescue, law enforcement, aeronautical research, or biological or resource management. Government organizations conducting public aircraft operations supervise their own flight operations without oversight from the FAA.
 
The goals of the forum, entitled "Public Aircraft Oversight Forum: Ensuring Safety for Critical Missions", are to (1) raise awareness of the importance of effective oversight in ensuring the safety of public aircraft operations; (2) identify where responsibility lies for oversight of public aircraft operations; and (3) facilitate the sharing of best practices and lessons learned across a number of parties involved in the oversight of public aircraft operations.

All of these areas will be explored through presentations by invited representatives from federal, state, and local government entities, aviation industry trade associations, and civil operators contracting with government agencies. At the conclusion of all presentations for each topic area, presenters will take part in a question and answer discussion with Board Members and NTSB staff.
 
Wednesday's sessions will include defining public aircraft and oversight, as well as the FAA's role in public aircraft oversight, and the oversight of government-owned aircraft. On Thursday, the discussions will turn to aircraft working on contracts as public aircraft. A detailed agenda and list of participants will be released closer to the date of the event.
 
Organizations and individuals can submit questions for consideration as part of the question and answer discussions. Submissions should directly address one or more of the forum's seven topic areas (identified by the panel titles) and should be submitted to publicaircraft@ntsb.gov. The deadline for receipt is November 25, 2011.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov