BASS 2026 Highlights Business Aviation Safety Culture

The 71st annual Flight Safety Foundation Business Aviation Safety Summit (BASS) opened yesterday in Provo, Utah, with a “leading safety through culture, innovation, and practical solutions” theme. The event is being held in partnership with NBAA and NATA.

BASS moderator David Belastock, captain at Bechtel’s flight department, reminded attendees that members of a flight operation “are all safety leaders. Through innovation—the act of introducing something new—everyone in this room is able to effect positive cultural change towards a higher standard. This process is an evolution, ongoing and continually reinvigorated by the influx of a new generation of business aviation professionals who continue to refresh our community with new ideas, even as they absorb the lessons of the past.

“Over the next two days, we’ll share with you innovative solutions to seemingly intractable safety challenges and provide you with the practical knowledge and tools to inspire and empower you as safety leaders to elevate your safety culture and the safety of our industry.”

Flight Safety Foundation president and CEO Hassan Shahidi welcomed attendees. “For more than seven decades, BASS has been a place where safety professionals come together with a shared purpose to identify risks, exchange ideas, learn from each other, and strengthen the safety of business aviation.

“Our theme this year…speaks directly to the moment we’re all in. Safety leadership today is not only about policies, procedures, or compliance; it is about the culture we create, the trust we build, the information we’re willing to share, and the discipline to try to incite into action. Over the next two days, we will explore the issues that matter most to business aviation safety, from human performance and safety culture to operational risk, mental health and wellbeing, data-driven decision making, emerging technologies, and practical tools that help organizations manage complexity. These discussions are intended not to just inform but to equip each of you with ideas and approaches that you can take back into your own organizations.

“This summit is only successful if you’re able to engage with each other and with the panels and with the speakers,” he concluded. “I encourage you to engage actively and use this summit as an opportunity to learn from one another.”

Keynote speaker Michael Graham, vice chairman of the NTSB, kicked off the summit with a summary of lessons learned (and lessons that still need to be explored) following the midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (KDCA) on January 29.

“If you’ve heard me present before at a conference like this,” he said, “you’ve likely heard the motto that I’ve adopted during my time at the NTSB: respect the unexpected. It’s simple, straightforward, and applicable to safety organizations across all modes of transportation and all shapes and sizes. No one knows when an unexpected event will occur, and therefore unexpected events must be respected by mitigating and eliminating identifiable risk.

“Today, I’m going to walk you through our recent investigation of the midair collision between an Army Black Hawk UH-60 Lima helicopter and PSA Flight 5342 near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last January. While there are a number of takeaways from this investigation in our final report, as evidenced by more than 50 safety recommendations that we issued, I think it is important for all of us to recognize that so many of these issues that led up to that accident were known to the various entities for years, and yet no one did anything about them. The expected was not respected.”

Three panel sessions were held during the rest of the morning, covering lessons learned from 2025 aviation events and how safety data can help shape solutions; collaboration between flight and ground crew to reduce incidents at airport ramps and hangars; and steps being taken to help aviators deal with mental health issues based on current research and trends.

The afternoon gave attendees an opportunity to choose different BASS round-robin safety conversations by splitting into four groups focused on various safety issues.

Today’s sessions included a fireside chat with Jodi Baker, FAA deputy associate administrator for aviation safety management, discussing the agency’s strategic shift to an enterprise-wide safety management system. This was followed by a Q&A session with air traffic controllers; a “flash talk” on GPS jamming and spoofing solutions; a panel session on smoke, fire, fumes, and lithium battery risks; and sessions on advancing safety from policy to practice, couples counseling for the corporate crew, and tackling emerging runway safety risks.