Story ID: 
Sumwalt Highlights Living Values, Safety Leaders
By: Kerry Lynch
Caption: Sumwalt challenged attendees at Safety Standdown to assess whether they are providing a safety environment that their customers truly deserve.
Word Count: 472
National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt stressed the importance of a strong safety culture, living the company’s core values and providing strong safety leadership as flight operations strive to meet their customers’ expectations. Speaking Thursday before the Bombardier Safety Standdown in Wichita, Sumwalt highlighted numerous accidents—from the May 2014 Gulfstream IV-SP crash in Bedford, Massachusetts, where the flight operation was IS-BAO 2 registered but the experienced crew did not complete checklists, to the November 2015 Hawker 700A crash in Akron, Ohio, where procedures were not followed and crew not properly vetted—and asked if operators were providing what customers truly deserved.

He argued that there sometimes is a disconnect between the customers' safety expectations and what they are actually getting.

He urged the Safety Standdown audience to ask themselves if they have implemented a strong safety culture. He also challenged them to continually strive for such a culture culture rather than believe they have attained it. “We must never get too comfortable,” Sumwalt said.

He also questioned whether organizations are really living their values. Most will espouse priorities, placing safety on top, he said. But priorities change—core values shouldn’t. Safety needs to be a value, not a priority, he said. Sumwalt places such an importance on values that, after stepping in as chairman, he immediately assembled a team to develop values for the NTSB.

He pointed to CVS as an example of living values. A few years ago, CVS eliminated sale of cigarettes, saying it was incongruous with the company’s mission of wellness. That raised Wall Street predictions that the organization would incur a $2 billion loss as a result. But in the intervening time, profits have increased 10 percent and stock value soared 40 percent.

As for safety leadership, Sumwalt stressed the need for an alignment between employees and management. Management often will emphasize safety, but might not practice it. This will filter down throughout the organization, he said. Sumwalt pointed to NTSB’s investigations of five accidents at the Metro-North railroad during a 10-month period. NTSB surveys revealed that management there believed more strongly that the railroad had an appropriate safety culture than labor believed, Sumwalt said. The agency further found that train drivers were frequently speeding to keep up with time pressures placed on them.

Sumwalt, who attended last year’s Safety Standdown, noted that at the time he expected it to be his last as a Safety Board member. He had agreed to stay beyond his expired term to ensure the NTSB had an adequate number of board members. But early last year the White House called and asked him not only to stay on, but move into the leadership role on the board. Sumwalt was later confirmed and officially sworn in on August 10.