Safety Standdowns can be a good idea, but only if you take advantage of what they are designed to do. Many times in my previous life (military), aircrew would complain about taking a down day to talk about safety related topics. Instead, we would rather be flying; after all we had a great safety record. But thanks to our hard working safety staff, they were able to focus our attention on critical areas that resulted in us maintaining a pristine flying safety record. We emphasized the positive things we did and examined the areas that needed improvement. These times of slowing down and taking a hard look at the way we did business caused me to be more safety conscious in every area of my flying career. That’s why I am a fan of Safety Standdowns; I really hate hearing about accidents that could have been prevented and this time of reflection may have prevented one or more news stories of the unfortunate kind.
2011 FAA Safety Standdown
