Safety
International Operations
On the surface at least, NBAA’s International Operators Conference (IOC) is always about technique: customs tips to import an aircraft for the most interna

On the surface at least, NBAA’s International Operators Conference (IOC) is always about technique: customs tips to import an aircraft for the most international flexibility, where a satcom system should fit into an aircraft’s equipment list or a remodeling update on that FBO in Tanzania. Really though, true participant value emerges in the small-group conversations where pilots talk shop and politics, like the Middle East situation or the post-earthquake chaos in Japan.

This year’s IOC opened to news of a NATO-established no-fly zone over Libya in an attempt to push back the army and air forces of Muammar Gaddafi just a month after the fall of the Mubarak government in Egypt. All the while, unrest was growing in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria, leading anyone traveling to the region to wonder where the next squeeze point would be. This news came only six months after the MEBA show in Dubai, an event that had convinced everyone this region would lead business aviation’s recovery.