Aero-TV Asks... Are Airshows As Safe As They Can Be??? (Part 5)

It's Airshow Week At Aero-TV!

The last in a five part series, this week, continues with a series of interwoven interviews in which we asked about a dozen airshow professionals the same three questions... each of which was the topic of its own program over the course of the week. In this final installment, we asked a number of airshow luminaries the following question... after a year in which there were a number of tragic but unrelated accidents, are airshows as safe as they can be???

Over the last few days, we addressed the airshow industry's ability to keep up with the times and the overall safety situation we find ourselves in as 2008 gets underway in earnest.

Produced at the ICAS Convention just before the end of the year, we were pleased to be able to tackle such important subjects as the industry made ready to start another year... but we apologize for some of the lighting, as we were stuck with some bad conditions and had to make the best of it.

ICAS tells us that Airshows draw large numbers of demographically attractive spectators - a well-educated, affluent group of men, women and children of all ages. More than 70 percent of the audience at an air show has had some college education. Three quarters report household income of $35,000 or more. The average spectator is just under 39 years of age, but more than 53 percent of spectators are between 30 and 50.

Safety has always been a major airshow concern but a series of unrelated accidents, this past year, to too many performers brought the topic to the forefront of discussion at the most recent ICAS get-together. ICAS notes that Airshows offer a consistently and historically safe environment for millions of spectators each year. Since current rules were implemented nearly 50 years ago, there has not been a single spectator fatality at a North American show – an enviable safety record for any business. But... they're not satisfied to leave it that. A 'small working group' of ICAS members recently met in Dallas to begin work on a new Safety Management System for the air show industry that will serve as an important tool in improving air show safety. Using existing safety management systems as models, ICAS members discussed the changes and accommodations needed to effectively adapt the work already done in other segments of the aviation industry to the particular needs and circumstances of the air show community.

Conceived as part of the larger ICAS initiative to change the culture of air show safety, the product of this effort is intended to document processes and procedures that our industry can use to manage risk, report incidents and accidents, participate more actively in accident investigations, identify trends, communicate the results of these investigations to members, and reduce the number of accidents in the air show community.

So... On To Part Five Of Aero-TV's Conversation With The Airshow Industry

FMI: www.icashq.org

Copyright 2008, Aero-News Network, Inc., ALL Rights Reserved.

1. By: AeroTVNetwork
2. Categories News & Events
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4. Added :13-May-08
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