Train To Mitigate Risk

In the last decade, the general aviation fatal accident rate, which had been decreasing for some time, reached a plateau and has stubbornly resisted industry and FAA efforts to further reduce it. Hovering in the range of 1.20-1.38 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours, this safety record is widely considered a deterrent to general aviation growth and may be one of the reasons student starts have continued to decrease. As a community, we may have oversold the benefits of a new generation of technically advanced aircraft (TAA) to an emerging latent market of individuals who are not traditional enthusiasts and who wish to use these aircraft for safe transportation.

Key Takeaways:

• The general aviation fatal accident rate has plateaued due to pilots' ineffective risk management, a deficiency largely attributed to outdated training doctrines that fail to adequately emphasize risk mitigation.
• Current risk assessment tools like PAVE and IMSAFE are insufficient because they often lead to simplistic "go-no/go" decisions without providing practical, in-flight strategies for pilots to actively reduce identified risks.
• The article proposes the "TEAM" framework (Transfer, Eliminate, Mitigate, Accept residual risk) as a new solution to empower pilots with concrete strategies for proactively managing and reducing flight hazards.
• Modernizing GA flight training to effectively teach risk mitigation, with leadership from the industry and instructor community, is crucial for improving safety and reversing the stagnant accident rate.

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