Center for Aerospace Safety Education

On Embry-Riddle's Prescott, Arizona, campus the Center for Aerospace Safety Education (CASE) is involved in several initiatives to gather and disseminate knowledge that will increase the safety of aviation.

Industrywide safety symposiums

Last April, CASE held the national symposium "The Role of the Director of Safety in Aviation" in response to Federal Aviation Regulation 119, which requires that all U.S. air carriers have a safety chief by March 1997.

Hazards Database The meeting assembled representatives from commercial carriers, regional carriers, business, and academia. The crash of an Air Force jet a week earlier in Croatia, which killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and a group of American business leaders, triggered a big turnout of military people, as well.

"The symposium allowed the smaller carriers to get together in the same room with the majors and learn how they do it," says Dave Roy, associate director of CASE. "They discussed their hierarchy, protocol for aircraft emergency response, accident investigation, and safety evaluation programs."

The center is organizing its second major meeting, "Aviation Communications: A Multicultural Forum," set for April 9-11, 1997.

The international conference will gather experts in linguistic, cultural, and technical aspects of communications, English as a second language, and human factors to discuss communication barriers in aviation and is expected to attract representatives from Pacific Rim countries, major airlines, communications companies, and regulatory agencies.

National aviation hazards database

Researchers at CASE also are creating the prototype for a national networked database of identified aviation hazards for use by all colleges that provide flight training. The database is Embry-Riddle's response to a challenge to improve the quality and accessibility of safety data, which was issued by participants of the Transportation Department's Aviation Safety Initiative Review last year.

Their recommendations: centralize and publish available safety data, improve the quality of FAA databases, acquire time-sensitive and critical safety information, and electronically disseminate the data.

Embry-Riddle's prototype would expand on its own voluntary internal hazard reporting system, which has been in use since August 1994. Unlike the FAA's safety reporting system, which has a shortage of accurate, timely data due to the airlines' fear of disclosing proprietary information, ERAU's system focuses on operations and training and is linked to changes in methodology and curriculum.

This enables the aviation safety manager to give statistics-based feedback on the effects of changes. For example, using data indicating that most near mid-air collisions occur on arrival or landing, the safety manager can focus on these phases of flight, and instructors can incorporate the data and individual reports into their regular briefings.

Courses and research facilities

CASE also offers courses leading to certification in aviation safety. They cover aviation safety program management, human performance in aviation, aircraft investigation and management, advanced accident investigation, crash-fire-rescue emergency response, and advanced maneuver training. Also offered are refresher and beginner safety certificate courses for industry professionals and graduate students.

The Robertson Aviation Safety Center includes an advanced aircraft accident investigation laboratory for the recreation of accident scenarios and testing of layouts and a materials lab for disassembly, inspection, and evaluation of aircraft components. In the center's library is a collection of Civil Aviation Board and National Transportation Safety Board aircraft accident reports dating to 1938, as well as Canadian and British reports.