Tuesday Edition: BASS 2026

The January 2025 midair collision of a U.S. Army helicopter and a regional jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and the ensuring investigation into the fatal accident disabused U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Vice Chair Michael Graham of the notion that the expected is always respected.

In his keynote remarks on Day 1 of the Foundation’s 71st Business Aviation Safety Summit (BASS) at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo, Utah, Graham said the underlying premise that the expected, i.e., known risks and hazards, is always respected proved not to be true. “So many of the issues that led to the accident were known to the various entities for years, and yet no one did anything about them,” he said.

For example, helicopter Route 4 down the Potomac River, which the Army Blackhawk was flying that night, was an established route but had no lateral boundaries, Graham said. He added that the route was supposed to be reviewed on an annual basis, but the NTSB investigation did not find any documentation that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had ever reviewed the route.

In 2013, a similar accident almost happened near DCA, and the DCA air traffic control helicopter working group proposed recommendations to FAA to remove or relocate Route 4, but FAA did not act and no documentation was found that explained why no action was taken.

Graham also ticked off numerous subjective and objective data points about helicopter/fixed wing aircraft conflicts near DCA over the years and said what normally would be alarming at any other airport in the country had become commonplace at DCA. He also lamented that all this data was not shared effectively, if at all.

“Here was all this data and no one was looking at it or sharing it,” Graham said. “All the signs were there, and no one did anything about it.”

The most important lesson learned from 2025 is that the risks the industry knows about but doesn’t act upon are more dangerous than the yet-unknown risks, Daniel Marimoto, air safety engineer at Embraer, said during a Day 1 panel discussion on transforming 2025 safety findings into future solutions.

Deviation from standard operating procedures, turbulence-related injuries, and GPS interference are all happening, the industry knows they are happening, and we continue to have accidents. “Mitigating actions have to have someone responsible for them or they don’t happen. There has to be follow up,” he said.

Susie Scott, director of transportation at Oliver Wyman Vector, said that when thinking about resiliency, the industry is looking at lagging data although resiliency is about anticipating, learning, and responding. Referring to NTSB Vice Chair Michael Graham’s keynote remarks, she said the industry needs to be aware of safety margins eroding. “I think we need to start thinking about how we look at the system we’re operating in,” she said.

For Adam Duszak, chief of Flight Test Safety, Gulfstream Aerospace, situational awareness and a reporting culture are key. He said is imperative to have good communication between tflight crews and maintainers and other employee groups so hat the groups can discuss and make each other aware of potential issues.

Scott noted that the aviation industry is one of the worst drivers of occupational injuries of any industry in the country and that there are “real opportunities” for aviation to learn from other industries.

Marimoto said turbulence injuries continue to be a leading accident cause, and the industry cannot continue to treat turbulence events as isolated incidents. He called for better turbulence prediction and reporting tools.

Greater communication and collaboration between pilots and ground handling personnel at fixed base operators could prevent errors and improve safety performance, speakers said during Session 2 on Tuesday.

Capt. Keith Wolzinger of charter operator Paragon Airways said, “We are looking for consistency from ground personnel” and that the ideal situation from a pilot’s point of view is to know in advance how an aircraft will be received and directed on landing, that marshallers use standard motions with lighted wands, and that pilots generally get clear instructions so they know what to expect and where to go. Even better is a “follow me” truck equipped with a radio so ground personnel can communicate directly with the flight deck, he said.

But sometimes, ground service personnel seem to be hiding in an office and then scramble to guide pilots in, he said, adding that sometimes they may have wands, sometimes green gloves, and other times, nothing.

Kevin Donnellly, director of safety at Jet Aviation, and Jason Stahl, director of safety at Milliam Air-Interlink, both acknowledged the issues and said their organizations are working to generate more professionalism among ground staff. Both said that turnover and salary are issues and that it’s difficult to instill a sense of professionalism in someone who is making relatively little money and may not be in the job long.

“We compete (for personnel) with organizations where you work inside and don’t get jet fuel on your clothes,” Donnelly said.

“We would love it if every person on staff had 15 to 20 years of experience, but that is very uncommon,” Stahl said. “We’re really trying to figure out how we can get the most out of that individual for the limited time they are there and may have one foot out the door already.”

“We need someone that is towing an $80 million airplane to be pretty sharp,” Wolzinger said.

Many pilots are unwilling to disclose mental health issues because of the perceived stigma and because they fear losing their livelihoods, panelists said during a session on using mental health data to deliver well-being solutions.

Part of the fear stems from a lack of trust, according to Dr. Aric Raus, assistant professor at the College of Aviation, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. The lack of trust and peer stigma prevent them from seeking care, he said. “Do we have the psychological safety for aviators to come forward and disclose they are having questions about their mental well-being?”

The culture of (reporting) avoidance and fear around self-reporting and stigma is alive and well, said Dr. Brooke Linden, director of research, Presage Group Inc.

Dr. Brett Wyrick, deputy U.S. Federal Air Surgeon, FAA, said that the agency is working hard to change perceptions and wants to keep pilots flying. “When someone says I’m having an issue and might need to talk with someone, that is a sign of strength and people should not be penalized,” he said.

Raus said that, in small organizations and flight departments, there may be trust, but he questioned whether there is privacy. He added that in small flight departments, there may be a lot of pressure to fly because there is no one else to do it. “People worry about the load that others will need to take if they don’t fly,” he said.

An enormous part of making the shift from blame culture to just culture comes from co-creation, Linden said. If an organization is looking to build a just culture, it should work with its staff. “Creating solutions with people is important to getting buy-in,” she said.

The NBAA Safety Committee has released a survey on pilot responses to Terrain Awareness Warning System (TAWS) alerts and is requesting business aviation pilots participate.

The survey is short, anonymous and takes less than 3 minutes to complete. The specific focus is pilot response to cautions and warnings along with confidence in the system to protect you, your aircraft and any other occupants. Given the wide variety of backgrounds of business aviation pilots, your participation would provide great insights.

If you have a few moments and feel inclined to give back to the community, this is an easy way to help.