Boeing Hosts Unprecedented Joint Aviation Safety Meeting

SEATTLE, Nov. 7, 1995 -- Aviation professionals from around the world aregathered here this week to discuss the most significant air-safety issues and solutions in the first joint meeting of the Flight Safety Foundation, the International Federation of Airworthiness and the International Air Transport Association. Boeing Commercial Airplane Group is the local host of the Nov. 6- 9 meeting and several of the company's safety experts will be making presentations to the gathering of about 500 delegates.

"Boeing believes the best way to enhance aviation safety is for the industry to work together to eliminate accidents through continuous improvements in air traffic systems, airline operations and airplane designs," said Dr. Earl Weener, Boeing Commercial Airplane Group Systems Engineering chief engineer and member of the Flight Safety Foundation board of governors. "We're proud to be involved in a conference that brings together the airlines, aircraft manufacturers, pilots unions, regulatory agency representatives -- the industry as a whole -- to make the safest form of travel even safer."

Weener also is chairman of the Foundation's Controlled Flight Into Terrain Task Force, which has been working since late 1992 on methods and tools to reduce one of the leading causes of airplane accidents. "CFIT" refers to a category of accidents resulting from the flight crew inadvertently flying a normally functioning airplane into the ground or water. During the conference, the task force will present an update on its efforts thus far, including:

• A comprehensive CFIT training package for flight crews that will be distributed in early 1996. This package provides airlines operating larger transport aircraft with an educational video, simulator scenarios and other training materials that can be used during recurrent pilot training.

• A video for regional and commuter airline operators to use in heightening pilot awareness of the CFIT issue.

• A pre-flight checklist for flight crews to assess the risk of a CFIT accident on a particular flight or route.

• Proposed rule and standards changes that will be offered to the International Civil Aviation Organization, which issues suggested aviation standards and practices to the world's regulators. One of the recommended changes is to require airlines to provide flight crew training and procedures on the use of ground proximity warning systems.

"Normally rule changes take a decade or more to implement," Weener said. "But since the task force has been cooperating with ICAO from the very beginning, we feel confident that these changes will be adopted immediately. That shows the benefits of working together."

The conference also will feature a presentation on "Safety Statistics." Boeing has researched commercial jet aircraft accidents since 1959 and is largely acknowledged as having one of the world's best data bases of such information. The company uses these data to determine design improvements in its own airplanes and to support the industry in identifying trends or topics that warrant more study.

Another report on the conference agenda highlights the Boeing-developed Maintenance Error Decision Aid, a new tool to help airlines determine factors that contribute to maintenance errors. In July, the Maintenance Error Decision Aid finished nine months of Federal Aviation Administration-sponsored field testing at eight airlines and one heavy-maintenance repair company. The tests not only validated the tool's effectiveness in investigating errors, but also support an estimate that about 80 percent of today's maintenance errors can be avoided by identifying and addressing the factors that lead to a maintenance technician's mistake. Boeing now is making the decision aid available to all of its customer airlines.

The Flight Safety Foundation is an international membership organization dedicated to the continuous improvement of flight safety; the International Federation of Airworthiness is an independent organization aimed at increasing international awareness and cooperation in all aspects of airworthiness; and the International Air Transport Association is the world trade organization of scheduled airlines.