FAA Administrator Steve Dickson expressed concern that the Covid pandemic and other recent “disruptions” had diluted human capital from operators, commercial carriers, and OEMs with the potential to negatively impact safety.
“There have been a lot of retirements and there's been a lot of change, people getting laid off. Instability and unpredictability are the enemies of safety," Dickson said during a webinar hosted by Helicopter Association International (HAI) last week. "You don’t like things to change. We’ve had a lot of change introduced into the system and a lot of disruption in a matter of months, sometimes weeks. The aviation system we had in February and March of 2020 is really not there anymore in the same way.”
Dickson said this change made it imperative that the industry and the FAA be even more collaborative when it comes to safety and identifying risks. The risks, Dickson said, “may not be the same ones that were here seven or eight months ago.”
Also during the webinar, Dickson and HAI president James Viola called on helicopter operators to voluntarily adopt safety management systems and install crash-resistant fuel tanks, seats, and structures in legacy rotorcraft. Dickson reaffirmed the agency’s intent to develop a rule expanding mandatory SMS for more Part 135 and Part 145 operators and some PMA parts manufacturers by 2022.