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 DAY 3 - THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7
 

The speed of change and technological advancement in in aviation poses a challenge for operators and regulators in Latin America, Jerome Cadier, CEO of LATAM Brasil, said Thursday on the third and final day of Flight Safety Foundation’s IASS 2024 in Rio de Janeiro.

Cadier, who addressed attendees remotely from Sao Paulo via a video hookup, said, “We have a big challenge ahead of us” to integrate technology, regulations, infrastructure, and people. “The speed[s] of all those four elements are not necessarily in sync, and for us to achieve better results moving forward, they need to be aligned.”

Shortly after joining the airline seven years ago, Cadier implemented regular meetings between himself and his team and the director of ANAC and his team to discuss “where we see gaps” and to talk about possible ways to mitigate those gaps. “I invite us to rethink whether we’re discussing the issues the right way between regulators and airlines.”aid.

The speed of change is an issue “more so than what it was in the past,” for both airlines and regulators, he said. “We need to make sure the regulator understands the pace of change.”

During his remarks, Cadier outlined some of the technological advances and tools LATAM is implementing. He said the airline is using drones for airframe inspections, allowing it to complete the inspections 20 times faster than manual inspections and with less risk to personnel because there is no scaffolding involved. The drone inspections generate a detailed record of the airframe and the airline using artificial intelligence to aid in identifying and assessing airframe damage.

The airline is using virtual reality to improve cabin training. It currently has modules covering how to operate aircraft doors in normal and emergency operations and how to handle in-flight lithium battery, oven, and lavatory fires. “With virtual reality, you can actually train for hours until you get it right,” he s

Implementing a mental health educational course for college-age pilots offers long term benefits for the individual students and for the aviation industry as a whole, speakers said during Thursday morning’s health and well-being panel.

College student pilots perceive the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s mental health policies as restrictive and say that they discourage students from seeking treatment because they fear reporting even minor issues may jeopardize their future careers, said Flavio Antonio Coimbra Mendonca, associate professor and researcher at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). However, educating student pilots about mental health and removing the stigma attached to mental health issues gives them tools to navigate their careers and be resilient, he said, adding that ERAU offers courses to teach skills that build resilience in the face of commonly experienced stressors and difficulties.

As these students enter the aviation industry, their mental health literacy will benefit the industry, he said.

Capt. Travis Ludwig, air safety organization pilot assistance chair with the Air Line Pilots Association, International, echoed the need for educating student pilots in mental health and well-being. Trying to “reprogram” someone is harder than training them correctly in the first place, he said.

Dr. Jaime Devine, director of sleep science, Institutes for Behavior Resources, said personal technology like smart phones can be used to create data flow between individual crewmembers and their organizations to promote wellness. She also cautioned, however, that health metrics from consumer technology are not always accurate or scientifically valid.

José Ricardo Botelho, executive director and CEO, ALTA, the Latin American and Caribbean Airlines Association, who spoke later in the day, said that mental health is a crucial topic to aviation safety. “Initiatives to destigmatize the treatment of psychological conditions, promote mental health awareness training, and implement peer support programs within airlines are of great importance,” he said.

Organizations should consider developing an integrated management system instead of maintaining separate and siloed management systems, including safety management systems (SMS), said Ian Holder, managing director, Baines Simmons. during a session on SMS.

An integrated approach to risk is desirable; without it, inappropriate risk decisions are often made, he said, adding that the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Safety Management Manual discusses managing risk in the whole system.

“I propose we move toward integrating risk from across an organization into a single management system,” he said. “If you have disconnected management systems, you’re going to have challenges. You really need to bring it together so you can compare apples to apples and make effective decisions.”

Panelists also advocated incorporating a Safety II methodology, including into flight data management (FDM) programs, to assess the operational risk of a subject fleet through the coupling of its precursors. “Safety II may enhance FDM programs by making them more predictive and capable of identifying emergent outcomes,” said Christianne Reiser, engineer, Embraer.

Kimberly Perkins, Ph.D., research scientist, University of Washington, and Boeing 787 first officer, United Airlines, said that human error is a symptom of a system that needs to be addressed. It is important to discover the why behind the error, she said.

Research has shown an increase in the frequency of clear air turbulence (CAT) over the past few decades and CAT occurrences are expected to continue to increase in the future, according to Dr. Sonnie Bates, CEO, WYVERN Ltd., and Andrew Dunbeck, general manager, Flight Safety, Delta Air Lines, who presented a flash talk on the impact of turbulence.

Their premise was that turbulence is an understated risk in commercial air transport, it is experienced on nearly every flight, and it has the potential to be fatal.

Dunbeck said Delta’s data analysis shows that while turbulence happens in all phases of flight, it is particularly significant in altitude bands between 20,000 ft and 10,000 ft. He also noted that the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that flight attendants be seated earlier as the aircraft enters the approach and landing phases.

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 DAY 2 - WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6
 

Psychological safety — a team culture in which individuals feel comfortable asking questions, learning from failure, admitting mistakes, sharing ideas, asking for help, and vocalizing safety concerns — can help improve organization safety in a variety of ways, according to Kimberly Perkins, Ph.D., a research scientist at the University of Washington and a Boeing 787 first officer. In addition, training on how to create psychological safety makes systems more resilient, she said in a Flash Talk that opened Day 2 of IASS 2024 in Rio de Janeiro.

Perkins said research shows that an organization is three times more like to get team members to share information when psychological safety is present. Conversely, low psychological safety reduces defenses to trap errors. With low psychological safety, “you’ve essentially punched more holes in your Swiss cheese,” she said, referencing James Reasons’ Swiss cheese model for trapping errors.

Psychological safety also impacts compliance with standard operating procedures (SOPs). In situations of low psychological safety, checklist items can be missed and SOP mistakes can occur, she said.

On the positive side, training in psychological safety and interpersonal communications can have a positive impact as measured through fewer SOP non-compliances, a reduction of certain flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) events, increased safety reporting, and improved employee engagement, she said.

U.S. Federal Air Surgeon Dr. Susan E. Northrup was honored as the 2024 recipient of the Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award, presented annually for notable achievement in aviation safety.

Northrup was cited for her creation of educational outreach programs designed to encourage open communication with aviators while prioritizing the management of chronic disease and mental health issues.

Tay Tiang Guan, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, who presented the award during a lunchtime ceremony along with Cameron Ross, head of aviation at BHP, praised Northrup’s “proactive approach [which] has contributed toward keeping healthy pilots in the air, ensuring both their well-being and continued aviation industry safety.” In addition, Northrup has “worked tirelessly on behalf of pilots diagnosed with mental illness to destigmatize the diagnoses, facilitate early access to treatment, and return them to the cockpit as soon as it is safe to do so,” he said.

Tay and Ross are members of the Foundation’s Board of Governors, and both are past recipients of the award.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not new to aviation. It plays an important role in safety and efficiency in helping the industry learn from a vast, ever-growing sea of data. How deeply AI will be integrated into aviation operations in the future largely will come down to trust.

In two wide-ranging discussions Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, and in other moments throughout the first two days of IASS 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, conversations and discussions have turned to AI, its challenges, and its potential.

Wednesday morning, Deborah Kirkman, director of collaborative safety innovation at the Foundation, moderated a fascinating panel discussion on AI, advanced computing, and aviation safety. “We have to trust AI and be assured that it’s going to work as we expect,” Kirkman said, adding that the industry will also have to understand its failure mode and how the system will work if it does fail.

Marko Rados, CEO of Inxelo, described AI as a tool that mimics intelligence and decision-making. Rados and others stressed that AI will not be a substitute for humans, but rather serve as an additional tool.  “Humans will always supervise the process,” he said. He also talked about the importance of AI learning through feedback. AI learning takes time and involves errors, as does human learning, he said.

Andrew Dunbeck, general manager, flight safety, at Delta Air Lines, said the industry is “data rich and analysis poor,” that data management is essential, and that AI could be used in that process. He said dynamic problems require dynamic solutions, but that the industry usually creates rigid manual processes that degrade and erode as the volume of data grows. “Data is the lifeblood of safety management systems,” he said.

Dejan Damjanovic, founder of The FANS Group, stressed the need to adopt formal certification processes for AI in aviation. He also described what he sees as the necessary hierarchical development of AI. Basically, he said that once we have accomplished machine learning, we want to achieve reasoning so we can make decisions based on what we learned; then, we can move into problem-solving. Once that is achieved, the industry can move to perception, which allows us to figure out which problem we are trying to solve. After that, we can achieve natural language, he said.

The industry needs to follow these steps in order and solve the challenges of one step before moving to the next stage.

Alan Sternberg, CEO of Beams, said that he finds it difficult to believe how manual the aviation safety risk management process is, and that AI could redefine how aviation approaches risk. “People spend too much time processing reports instead of doing risk management,” he said.

Sternberg also stressed that AI suggests or makes recommendations, and that it remains up to humans, with their expertise, to make decisions.

For AI to be effective, humans will have to trust its recommendations. For Damjanovic, that means having traceability of the data accessed by the AI. “You have to be able to trace it back to the source,” he said, adding that the same holds true for any recommendations generated – “what were all the sources used to generate an outcome, and were they the correct ones?”

AI and automation were also popular topics in Tuesday afternoon’s final session on manufacturing innovation. Yannick Malinge, senior vice president, head of aviation safety, Airbus, said that AI is a powerful tool to manage the supply chain. The Airbus worldwide fleet operates more than 41,000 flights a day and generates a massive amount of data. “Without AI to optimize use of that data wouldn’t be able to make it.” AI helps you find the data point that could be the beginning of a bad story, he said,

Andy Roberts, director of flight operations, Rolls-Royce, said AI will be used more in the continuing airworthiness and maintenance of aircraft than in certification because once the products are in service, they generate a lot of data.

Cleiton Diniz Pereira Da Silva e Silva, vice president of technology and advanced projects, Embraer, and Malinge both said that AI and technology should be used to train the new generation of personnel coming into the industry.


 DAY 1 - TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5
 

Collaboration, openness, and innovation were all cited as keys to advancing safety and safety culture Tuesday morning during the opening session of Flight Safety Foundation’s 77th annual International Aviation Safety Summit (IASS) in Rio de Janeiro.

 Keynote speaker Francisco Gomes, chief executive officer of Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, cited openness and honesty as one of the five pillars of the Embraer culture and said that “it is not a problem to talk about problems. We don’t want to get bad news late.”

The other cultural pillars are working as a team, being accountable for financial results, addressing complexity with simplicity, and having a passion to make a difference, he said.

“We believe a strong culture is a fundamental base for everything we want to do in our company.” The culture that Embraer is building can be described as “safety first and quality always in everything we do,” Neto said, adding that when Embraer talks about safety, the company is referring to its products and to its people.

During his remarks, Neto outlined the company’s business aviation, commercial and military aircraft product lines and its eVTOL subsidiary Eve Air Mobility. The company expects its first eVTOL craft to enter service in 2027.

IASS 2024 was organized by the Foundation in partnership with the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC). In his welcoming remarks, Tiago Sousa Pereira, director-president of ANAC, said that vigilance is important to the development and sustainment of aviation. “IASS is a unique opportunity to encourage this culture of sharing. Together, we shall build a safer future.”

Pereira’s remarks echoed those of Gilberto Lopez Meyer, senior vice president of corporate aviation safety and security at Aeroméxico and the newly installed chair of the Foundation’s Board of Governors. Through collaboration, we can drive meaningful progress,” Lopez Meyer said, adding, “Together we can shape the future of aviation safety.”

One of the themes that emerged during Tuesday’s executive panel discussion on “charting new frontiers in safety innovation” is that there is an inherent tension between embracing innovation and remaining focused on the fundamentals of aviation safety.

Capt. Alvaro M. Pereira Valenzuela, flight safety coordinator at Copa Airlines, said that while it is time to unlock new perspectives on safety, the industry must not abandon its foundational safety practices. “Integrating new technology is essential, but pilots must be grounded” in the fundamentals of airmanship, he said.

Tay Tiang Guan, a senior advisor at the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, dean of the Singapore Aviation Academy, and member of Flight Safety Foundation’s Board of Governors, said that leaders must ensure that the basics are performed properly, and they also have to look ahead to prepare for the future.

The challenge today is how we, as an industry, embrace changes brought about by innovation. “The good thing is we don’t have to work alone,” he said. “Collaboration among states and with the private sector will be critical.”

Oscar Quesada, deputy director of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) South American regional office, lamented that the industry has not made more progress on implementing state safety programs (SSPs), a concept that was introduced by ICAO in 2006. According to his analysis of SSP implementation, only about 7 percent of ICAO member states have implemented SSP. “So, Houston, we have a problem,” he said, adding, “Do we think we need to rethink our strategy?”

The panelists advocated moving toward a more risk-based approach to safety management, decision-making, and regulatory surveillance; effectively using artificial intelligence; and understanding the skills that operators and regulators are going to need in the future.

“Empowering people to take risks is part of innovation,” Quesada said.

In a wide-ranging discussion of advanced air mobility (AAM) and its subset, urban air mobility (UAM), it became clear the evolution of the technology will be gradual. The initial phase will occur within the bounds of the current air traffic management system and will be comprised typically of air taxi operations and visual flight rules flights. Paulo Soares Oliveira Filho, senior safety specialist at Embraer, described the evolution as crawl-walk-run. He also said that flight crew training and certification are likely to be on a type-rating basis.

Flavio Antonio Coimbra Mendonca, associate professor and researcher at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, discussed his research on what could be a significant issue for low-flying aircraft in the UAM/AAM realm — wildlife strikes. He likened the risk to what traditional helicopter operators face currently. In his research, time of day, phase of flight, and speed were identified as significant predictors of damaging strikes. For example, he said, the highest probability of encountering a damaging strike occurs during the en route phase of flight, and while the risk of strikes overall is higher at night, the risk of a damaging strike is higher during daytime operations. He said a wildlife strike–reporting system focused on AAM is important for safety efforts by stakeholders.

David Schöne, managing director, FlightGuardian Aviation Safety, said there are three key issues facing AAM: human-machine collaboration, adapting safety protocols, and enhancing safety culture. On adapting safety culture, he said, “We need to make sure we understand the risks, including those we are introducing.”

An organization’s leader has the greatest influence within that organization to create a resilient, productive, and safe operation, according to Tom Anthony, director, Aviation Safety and Security Program, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California.

During his presentation on improving safety and performance through organizational resilience, Anthony made the point that “resilience is more than just bouncing back.” He also said that creating an environment of emotional and psychological safety is essential to creating a resilient organization.

Luiz Ricardo de Souza Nascimento, director, Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC), described the “peculiar” setup in Brazil where civilian and military aviation are intertwined and the same control towers and radars offer images to both civilian and military aircraft. He said that ANAC tries to create an environment that listens intently to people. He also argued against a culture that assigns blame. “When an accident happens, it is unfair to look for a single culprit.”

Gabriel Casella, safety manager at GOL and vice chair of the Brazilian Commercial Aviation Safety Team (BCAST) explained the process that GOL uses to identify the safety issues on which it will focus and how the process holds leadership financially accountable for safety protection.

He said his organization is spending more time trying to understand the root cause of issues and is not simply issuing “superficial” safety bulletins.

The goal of the U.S. Federal Air Surgeon’s office is to return individuals to flying or controlling as soon as it is safe to do so, Dr. Susan Northup, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) federal air surgeon, said Tuesday afternoon. “We’re not where we want to be, but we’re getting there,” she said.

Northrup talked about the reluctance of aviators to seek medical care, particularly if they feel that it could threaten their FAA certification. Fifty-six percent of aviators said they would probably avoid seeking medical care, she said. As an ,she said that it takes the average American experiencing chest pains 48 hours to seek medical care, but for the average pilot, it takes four weeks.

She said that overcoming the barriers to seeking medical care will require the effort of the entire aviation community. She also talked about the importance of early intervention. “If you get help early, we can get you back (to flying or controlling) a whole lot faster,” she said.

Peer support programs are another significant tool. “Eighty-five percent of individuals who interact with peer support programs never progress to needing help from a professional,” she said.