Contact: Tom Kok,
Director, AviAssist
+31 (0)207143148
kok@aviassist@org
Alexandria, VA, July 9, 2008 — The AviAssist Foundation today starts a campaign to inform Parliamentary transport committees in East and Southern African (ESAF) on aviation safety issues.
In order to assist the transport committees in further raising their awareness on the issue of aviation safety, the AviAssist Foundation has assembled an information package that is being dispatched to parliaments in the ESAF region. The package will inform them about the aviation safety challenges that may benefit from their support. At the same time, the AviAssist Foundation is available for any further queries they may have. Through this campaign, the AviAssist Foundation will help others deal with really tough political problems.
“Parliaments play a critical role in enabling much-needed legislative changes and empowering the civil aviation department” said AviAssist Director Tom Kok. “The aviation community has to do a much better job in making its world understandable to aviation outsiders who nonetheless play a critical role in improving aviation safety. Aviation outsiders may not always find it easy to determine what constitutes safety and lack of safety. They may not always be aware of the increasing international pressure to improve aviation safety and they often have to attend to many issues.”
“A new crop of threats to international aviation safety is part of a renewed focus of the Flight Safety Foundation. Among those emerging risks is a shaky political will,” said FSF President and CEO William R. Voss. “Experience gained by our regional affiliate, the AviAssist Foundation, makes clear that it sometimes is not so much a lack of political will but a lack of accessible information to create a political will.”
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Flight Safety Foundation is an independent, non-profit, international organization engaged in research, auditing, education, advocacy and publishing to improve aviation safety. The Foundation’s mission is to pursue the continuous improvement of global aviation safety and the prevention of accidents. www.flightsafetstg.wpenginepowered.com
AviAssist Foundation is an independent, non-governmental organization with 10 years of experience. It works with aviation organizations in the ESAF region on identifying threats to safety, analyzing the problems and working on practical solutions to them . It does so in close coordination with the International Civil Aviation Organization and other organizations that provide safety support. It is the regional affiliate of the Flight Safety Foundation. For more information, visit www.aviassist.org or contact info@aviassist.org
Contact: Emily McGee, Director of Communications, 1-703-739-6700, ext. 126; mcgee@webdeva.flightsafety.org
