Safety
Nascar crews embrace SMS
After a Hendrick Motorsports King Air 200 crashed into Bull Mountain on Oct.

After a Hendrick Motorsports King Air 200 crashed into Bull Mountain on Oct. 24, 2004, while attempting a missed approach at Martinsville/Blue Ridge Airport in Virginia, Nascar race team flight departments took a fresh look at the safety of their operations. The result has been increasing interest in the concept of safety management systems (SMS), with Nascar hosting its first SMS safety summit late last year at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

The Summit was the brainchild of Phil Randall, deputy national manager of the FAA’s new FAASTeam safety program. Based at the FAA’s Greensboro, N.C. FSDO, Randall interacts frequently with Nascar race team flight departments. More than 100 race team pilots and mechanics and local FAA inspectors attended the event.