This is a reminder about the National Transportation Safety Board’s two-day Public Aircraft Oversight Safety Forum that we first told you about in September. It will be held in Washington D.C. and will begin at 9:00 a.m. ET, Wednesday, November 30, 2011 and continue through Thursday, December 1st. It will be available for the public to view live on the internet at the NTSB web site.
The forum could affect the way land management agencies use firefighting aircraft, including helicopters, air tankers, and other fixed wing aircraft while managing wildfires.
I am thinking that one of the primary reasons the NTSB is looking into this issue is the helicopter accident on the 2008 Iron Complex fire near Weaverville, California in which nine firefighters died. The NTSB investigation brought to light information that made it clear the FAA and the U.S. Forest Service had inadequate oversight of the operation of aircraft used for wildland firefighting on federal lands. According to the NTSB, there was “intentional wrong-doing” by Carson Helicopters that under-stated the weight of the helicopter and over-stated the performance of the helicopter in the documents they provided to the USFS when bidding on their firefighting contract.
Some of the family members of the firefighters that died on the Iron Complex fire will attend the forum in person in Washington D.C. They have been having trouble finding out if any federal agencies are actively pursuing a criminal investigation into the activities of Carson Helicopters and the company’s role in the fatal accident.
Below is the text from an NTSB press release about the forum:
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NTSB announces preliminary agenda for public aircraft forum
November 8, 2011
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) today announced the preliminary agenda for a two-day Public Aircraft Oversight Safety Forum which will begin at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, November 30, 2011 and continue through Thursday, December 1st. NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman will chair the forum and all five Board Members will participate. The forum is open to all and free to attend (there is no registration).
Public aircraft are operated by a federal, state, or local government for the purpose of fulfilling governmental functions such as firefighting, search and rescue, law enforcement, aeronautical research, or biological or resource management. Government organizations conducting public aircraft operations supervise their own flight operations without oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The goals of the forum, entitled “Public Aircraft Oversight Forum: Ensuring Safety for Critical Missions”, are to (1) raise awareness of the importance of effective oversight in ensuring the safety of public aircraft operations; (2) identify where responsibility lies for oversight of public aircraft operations; and (3) facilitate the sharing of best practices and lessons learned across a number of parties involved in the oversight of public aircraft operations.
All of these areas will be explored through presentations by invited representatives from federal, state, and local government entities, aviation industry trade associations, and civil operators contracting with government agencies. At the conclusion of all presentations for each topic area, presenters will take part in a question and answer discussion with Board Members and NTSB staff.
Below is the preliminary forum agenda:
Wednesday, November 30
- Welcome and Opening Remarks
- Defining Public Aircraft
- Defining Oversight
- The Role of the FAA in Public Aircraft Oversight
- Oversight of Government-Owned Aircraft
Thursday, December 1
- Oversight of Contracted Aircraft
- Contractors’ Perspective on Public Aircraft Oversight
- Role of Organizations Representing Public Aircraft Operators and Contractors
- Closing Remarks
A detailed agenda and list of participants will be released closer to the date of the event.
Organizations and individuals can submit questions for consideration as part of the question and answer discussions. Submissions should directly address one or more of the forum’s seven topic areas (identified by the panel titles) and should be submitted to publicaircraft@ntsb.gov. The deadline for receipt is November 25, 2011.
The forum will be held in the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center, located at 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C. (directions may be found here: http://www.ntsb.gov/about/contact.html). The public can view the forum in person or by webcast at www.ntsb.gov.
This WILL be interesting…
What will be interesting is when the NTSB has its say, hopefully (wrong word in aviation) that it will have a strong influence over the way “public aircraft” are defined.
More interestingly, what Agency will be the REAL oversight? FAA or USFS. USFS “clams” more stringency buts lack a CLEAR vision beyond 2 days at most as reflected in this years fire season.
Strip the “public use” off of the aircraft being contracted and treat it like every other civilian aircraft out there. If we in the GA world and Part 121 /135 world are subjected to the regulations under the FAR’s …….then government and its operations ought not be any different.
Lets hope that the NTSB has a long arm on this one, assigns it to the FAA and hopefully the FAA will hire on some of the folks in the airtanker industry who have a history of of IRANing aircraft. Inspect, Repair As Necessary with that background. Get MORE than ONE single source contract NDT operators out there and get the P3 and other aircraft subjected to this years contract cancellations back in the air again….
Folks can blame Carson all they want…….There is more than enough blame to go around and squarely pointing fingers at contractors is truly a chicken$$$$it way out of eliminating your way out of a game that plenty of agencies have known about….NAMELY airframes and aircraft require money and maintenance and there are NO two ways around this..
I say Good Luck and more power and God Speed to the NTSB!!!