SAFETY STANDDOWN

BOMBARDIER'S IS GOING STRONG IN ITS THIRD DECADE

- ROB MARK

Despite an industry inhabited with thousands of gigantic egos, most aviation folk will probably admit, some secretly, that they wish they had a mentor, a guide to prevent them from falling into any of the thousands of professional pits waiting for the unsuspecting or poorly educated. Who wouldn’t like advice from someone who has been there before and knows the answers to important questions such as the best initial education, job-search tips or even how to hang on to the position they already have? Imagine too learning just how to safely move an airplane and its cargo of passengers from engine start to shutdown?

When it comes to aviation safety—whether the topic is fatigue, cockpit and cabin operations, or the late-night replacement of an APU in time for an 0600 departure— Bombardier’s three-day Safety Standdown has risen high on the must-attend list for aviation practitioners around the globe over the past 23 years.

The first Safety Standdown was the brainchild of a team of pilots led by Bob Agostino, former director of Bombardier’s flight operations in Wichita, Kansas, following a tough accident investigation. Also an experienced investigator, Agostino asked members of his department for suggestions, and one, a US Air Force veteran, mentioned how the military dealt with similar issues: “We’d stand down [from flying] until we figured out the cause of the problem.”

Agostino realized there was no reason to wait for another accident to the search for answers. Not long after, the first Safety Standdown was launched as an internal training tool for Bombardier’s seven-pilot Wichita flight department. In 1997, the Safety Standdown expanded to include Bombardier’s research-and-development teams and the company’s test pilots. A few years later, customers were invited. By the turn of the century, the doors were opened at no cost to other flight departments and individuals.