The word safety refers to the management of risk with the goal of eliminating, reducing, and/or mitigating injury and loss as a result of accidents and incidents. Safety is fundamental to business aviation’s role within the nation’s transportation system. It is also a key expectation of those who we personally transport. Our community must not only be safe, it also must have the perception of safety.

The following concepts and actions are elements of safety culture that can be found in many organizations:

• Unqualified commitment to safety as a behavioral pattern and pervasive way of life by top management.
• Unambiguous expectations by each level of management as well as each peer group that, for all employees, safe life patterns and work habits are as normal as breathing and must be practiced off the job as well as on the job.
• Availability of quality, standardized equipment with which to accomplish the assigned tasks.
• Clear, easily understood operating procedures, followed without deviation.
• Inclusive system of communications for collecting, analyzing, and exchanging incident data related to safety.
• Non-retribution for submission of incident data.
• Retraining without penalty or stigma when safety is involved.
• System for tracking incident and accident data, analysis of trends, and feedback of results.
• Peer acceptance that accidents are preventable, regardless of operations.
• Peer acceptance that safety is a matter of lifestyle – a matter of culture.