On Mon., Feb. 13, at HELI-EXPO 2012 in Dallas, Texas, HAI President Matt Zuccaro will host and moderate a Public Aircraft Industry Workshop. This meeting is designed to serve as a launching pad for an industry working group to develop recommendations for government regulators on ways to strengthen and clarify safety oversight of public aircraft operations.

This industry workshop is an outgrowth of a November 2011 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) public forum which highlighted the shortcomings of safety oversight and surveillance responsibility for public use aircraft operations. NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman minced no words in her opening statement, calling public aircraft operations the “orphans of aviation safety,” pointing out that, “in the air carrier world, and in general aviation, it is very clear that the FAA has regulatory authority over all aspects of aircraft operation and airworthiness, but those clear lines do not exist when it comes to public aircraft operations.”

In his testimony at the NTSB forum, Zuccaro agreed that the line between public use and civil aviation operations has become so blurred, particularly for contract operations, that “it is time to bring all the stakeholders together in a working group to provide clarity on the issue.” Zuccaro does not expect the Public Aircraft Industry Workshop at HELI-EXPO to provide all the answers. “But,” he says, “we do think that it will get the process started.”

This workshop has two basic goals: to clarify the specific issues the working group will need to address, and to identify the stakeholders who should be members of the Working Group. The Public Aircraft Industry Workshop will be held in Meeting Room C (C3-C4) at the Dallas Convention Center, from 3:30 pm on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. All interested parties are welcome to attend.