Certainly the news that there were no U.S. airline passenger fatalities in 2010 is cause for reflection and, yes, some self-congratulation by all those who made it possible. From airline and manufacturers’ boardrooms to the 10th floor of 800 Independence Avenue, congratulations are in order. And most important, thanks to all who toil in often thankless jobs in the cockpits, cabins, hangar floors and ATC facilities where front-line aviation workers made safe flight a reality day after day. Jobs well done indeed!
But–you all know I canπt resist a note of caution–while congratulations are in order for all the hard work it takes to get to this point, accident prevention can never rest on yesteryear’s statistics. A fatality-free year can never be an excuse to let down our guards or discontinue the kinds of things that got us to zero fatalities. The work of identifying precursors to accidents and incidents needs to continue without pause not only because those precursors can change over time but also because some of the same old problems exist today and maybe we were just plain lucky that they didn’t provide a causal link in a fatal accident chain.
More In Safety
