In a period of a few weeks the aviation community, along with the entire country, has suffered multiple heartbreaking tragedies in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Alaska, Arizona, and Toronto. From everyone at the Foundation to the victims, their families and friends - our thoughts go out to you as you endure these terribly traumatic events.

It seems that everyone is asking the same question: is it safe to fly? This question is often answered with the standard platitude, “flying is the safest way to travel.” Of course this is statistically true. Each day nearly 3 million passengers are safely delivered to their destinations by an extensive network of extremely talented professionals. Ticket agents, mechanics, baggage handlers, dispatchers, flight attendants, air traffic controllers, and pilots perform their jobs with pride and a dedication to passenger satisfaction and safety. We can point to the last airline crash in the United States and see an unprecedented sixteen years of apparent success.

Having said this, there are many negative safety trends and there is significant room for improvement in all areas of the airspace system. For example, just in the United States there are over 1,100 aviation accidents per year resulting in hundreds of deaths. Many of these are general aviation mishaps; nevertheless, the loss of life is unacceptable. The system rides on a knife’s edge every day, only a single mistake away from another major disaster. The system is stressed with more aircraft flying to and from the same airports we’ve had in service for 30 years. Traffic has increased 40% since 2009, runway incursions number over 1,000 per year, and near midair collisions are prevalent. There are also an increasing number of controlled airspace violations involving drones.

Add to this the well documented 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, the continuing Boeing design and manufacturing struggles, and a feckless FAA that has become a paper tiger that caters more to industry than safety compliance moving us ever closer to more crashes and loss of innocent lives. We cannot rest on our laurels relying on historical statistics. We can, and need, to be better.

The Foundation calls on every organization involved in the global airspace system to dedicate themselves to continuous training and development of aviation professionals, rigorous enforcement of all regulations, aircraft maintenance excellence, and hiring the most qualified personnel available. Restoring confidence from the flying public is essential. We will continue to monitor the industry to hold the powers that be accountable.

Please join us in this effort.