Safety Against the Odds

Isabel Goyer

Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 02:07 AM ET

Verified

U.S. Air Force

Key Takeaways:

The USAF achieved a record-breaking aviation safety year in FY2009 with a remarkably low Class A mishap rate (0.8 per 100,000 flying hours), significantly outperforming most civilian aviation sectors.
This success is primarily driven by the comprehensive USAF Safety Center, which develops policy, provides guidance, and oversees all aspects of aviation safety, including dedicated programs like Bird/Wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard (BASH) and Human Factors.
The Air Force conducts rapid (30-day) accident investigations focused on generating actionable recommendations, supported by extensive training for safety officers and a policy of immunity for those providing testimony to ensure transparency.
Safety is considered an organization-wide commitment ("Every Airman a Safety Officer"), bolstered by continuous improvements in equipment, adoption of new technologies (e.g., bird avoidance radar, MFOQA), and proactive adaptation to evolving challenges like remotely piloted aircraft.

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The e-mail we received here at Flying from Col. Sid “Scroll” Mayeux, chief of aviation safety at the United States Air Force Safety Center, was a little hard to believe. “Last year (Fiscal Year 2009),” Mayeux’s e-mail read, “was the USAF’s safest year in aviation safety, with 17 Class A Aviation Flight Mishaps for a 0.8 rate per 100,000 flying hours.”

One might think that the job of attaining a level of safety like that, given the Air Force’s high-flying, high-tech fleet of aircraft, was an impossible task, and I would have been right there with you. Somehow, though, the Air Force seems to have hit upon a formula for safety that last year approached perfection.