Guest Kevin Hiatt is CEO and President of the Flight Safety Foundation, an independent, non-profit, international organization engaged in research, auditing, education, advocacy and publishing to improve aviation safety. The Foundation’s mission is to pursue the continuous improvement of global aviation safety and the prevention of accidents.

We talk about the recent International Aviation Safety Summit: approaches (stabilized and otherwise), tactical safety and strategy, and a presentation from BEA on the lengthy AF447 investigation and the (inaccurate) suggestion by some that they were covering up for AF and Airbus.

Also from the Summit: Data gathering and sharing, and safety culture, including from the airline perspective. Dave Barger, Jetblue CEO, described how safety is one of the Jetblue five values.  Scott Winter, Assistant Professor of Aviation Sciences at the College of Aeronautics at Florida Institute of Technology presented on runway excursions.

Other topics we covered: NextGen ATC, where that’s going, and the impact on safety. The role of data in the future of flight safety world-wide. Flight Safety Foundation is working with the Mitre Corporation to take safety from a reactive mode (investigating accidents and implementing changes to prevent recurrence) to predictive mode using data to pinpoint areas that warrant examination to reduce future risk.

Before joining the Foundation, Kevin was the Vice President for Corporate Safety and Security at World Airways. Kevin was also with Delta Air Lines for 26 years in a variety of positions, including Chief Pilot at the Atlanta International Pilot Crew Base.

 The Week’s Aviation  News:

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• Next Gen on Sequester Chopping Block
  
• Flight Safety Foundation and MITRE Collaborate to Transform Global Aviation Analytics
  
• Soon You’ll Be Able To Use Electronics During Your Entire Flight, FAA Says
  
• FAA: Portable Electronic Devices [link to PED ARC report]
  
• LAX shooting: Latest on suspect, victims and warning that may have come too late
  

By Daniel from Sydney Australia

In This Week’s Australia Desk:

Grant is taking a break this week so PCDU’s Western Australia correspondent, Ben Jones (aka Jonesy) joins Steve for this report.

In the news, it’s Melbourne Cup week which, although a horse racing event, provides aviation enthusiasts a feast of extra aircraft and aircraft movements to check out.  One Melbourne based helicopter pilot didn’t enjoy the festivities quite so much when her Bell 206L flipped onto its side and crashed as it went to depart a local executive shuttle point in the city’s north.  Luckily, she escaped the wreckage with little more than a finger injury.

Qantas maintenance staff at it’s beleaguered Avalon base have approached the company with an offer to take three months off without pay, in a desperate bid to save the facility from closure.  It appears the company is determined to progress the closure plans however, as it continues to reduce it’s Boeing 747 fleet.  Avalon is the current home of Qantas 747 maintenance in Australia.

Ben tells us about local Perth-based participation in this year’s annual World Flight Australia, a virtual airline event that raises much needed funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Mentioned:

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• A Confession at Dragons of Thin Air: A most unusual fear of flying course
  
• The inside story of Bombardier’s $4-billion gamble on a super quiet jet
  
• EATNN TTUNA SNWCH – hold (at) MAYYO: More on the Secret Language of the Skies
  
• The happiest airline story ever: Man and smartphone reunited by awesome customer service
  
• Public invited to view Doolittle Raiders’ final toast
  
• The Pentagon Channel
  

Photos:

This episode’s photos are provided by our listeners. Thanks to @nzaircraftfan for the Mustangs and Daniel from Sydney Australia for the Cessna 182 in flight!

Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at brotherloverocks.com.