Safety Standdown Draws Visitors from 25 Countries

Bombardier wrapped up its three-day Safety Standdown in early November in Fort Worth, Texas, emphasizing elevating standards, managing risk, achieving measurable goals, and improving culture to more than 500 attendees and many more online. By the opening of the third day, the webcast of the event had already attracted more than 1,500 visits online and surpassed the goal for views from more than 20 counties, reaching 25, Bombardier demo pilot and Safety Standdown host Franco Pietracupa announced. Webcast visits over the past several years have totalled 8,600, he added.

The location marked a departure from the decades Bombardier has hosted the event in Wichita, but Pietracupa opened the three-day event informing attendees that “you are in the record books” by filling all available slots within eight days of the opening of registration this past August. While Safety Standdown made its first appearance in Fort Worth this year, it is anticipated to return to its home of Wichita, Kansas, where it is traditionally held.

Andy Nureddin, v-p of customer support for Bombardier Business Aircraft, helped kick off the 2019 event, saying, “Safety Standdown continues to improve year after year. We all have a shared passion to enhance safety in this industry.”

He noted that the event was established by a small group of pilots, comprising the Learjet demonstration team, who asked themselves “a simple but critical question of how can we make operations safer.” This grew into a movement, he said, and Safety Standdown has “grown to become one of the most comprehensive human factors safety conferences in the industry,” promoting the culture of safety, continuing education, and professionalism in aviation.

Attendees represent a range of geography and organizations from nearly every sector of the aviation industry: the military, commercial airlines, government, industry associations, law enforcement, private operators, OEMs, and flight departments. “One of the things that makes Safety Standdown special is it is both inclusive and agnostic,” Nureddin said. “Here, we have a common goal to make our skies safe as can be. We’re here to live and breathe the Safety Standdown creed, to learn, apply and share.”

The theme Elevate Your Standards was emphasized throughout the general session by speakers, many of whom were familiar faces to the event, including retired U.S. Navy Capt. Al Worthy, who spoke on a theme that asked the audience to address what defines them. The FBI’s Amy Grubb also returned to the main stage to discuss coaching, a topic she carried into the workshops. They were among the 16 speakers who appeared on the main stage, along with the event’s host Pietracupa.

Perennial favorites returning included retired USAF Lt. Col. Tony Kern of Convergent Performance and Dan Boedigheimer of Advanced Aircrew Academy. Kern, who said he was speaking at his 22nd Safety Standdown, once again turned to a persona to emphasize safety, this year becoming “TK Thrilla” with a rap to celebrate Safety Standdown. He drove home the point of pushing personal standards beyond the organizational or regulatory standard through professionalism and making a commitment, rather than intent, to execute the improvement.

Also opening Safety Standdown was Tim Miller, director of Office of Air Carrier Safety Assurance for the FAA, who highlighted how the increase in transparency between the agency and industry was elevating standards. NBAA COO Steve Brown called Safety Standdown a “must-attend event,” and discussed key safety focus areas for the industry, saying it needs to redouble efforts because one accident is too many.

Benoit Rocheleau, CAE's head of operations for business aviation, helicopter, and maintenance training, underscored the importance of sharing knowledge through events such as Safety Standdown, especially given the anticipated expansion of the pilot population. Boedigheimer, meanwhile, was on the slate with a theme that matched Bombardier Safety Standdown’s mantra: "Learn, Apply, Share."

This year’s event featured nearly 50 workshops spread out in the afternoons over three days, enabling attendees to take a deeper dive into a range of topics; from controlled flight into terrain, hypoxia awareness, and international operations, to runway surface risks, elevating standards through coaching, and predictability of maintenance errors, to name a few.