The COVID-19 pandemic has tested the resilience of the aviation industry and made more obvious safety issues that existed even before the viral outbreak, safety leaders said today (Sept. 21) during Flight Safety Foundation’s 74th annual International Air Safety Summit (IASS).
Dai Whittingham, chief executive of the U.K. Flight Safety Committee, told the virtual session that the pandemic has exposed “deep fractures and vulnerabilities” in the industry’s handling of safety issues while also causing extreme financial hardship for airlines and airport operators, among others.
He cited one European airline, which he did not identify, in which the safety director was returned to line flying because some managers believed that his director’s salary was too high. “That finance director threw away 19 years of safety experience,” Whittingham said.
Such attitudes could be mitigated through efforts to provide aviation leaders and managers with more information about safety t…
