NBAA Top Safety Focus Areas for 2018

National Business Aviation Association

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is an organization that focuses on supporting business aviation interests. In doing so, the organization and its members work to foster an environment that allows the business aviation industry to thrive both in the U.S. and around the world.

FBAA was founded in 1947 and is based in Washington, DC. They currently represent more than 11,000 companies and provide more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community. One service they provide is the NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition, which is the world largest civil aviation trade show in the world. They also have a Safety Committee responsible for the NBAA Safety Awards Program.

Every year, the NBAA's Safety Committee publishes Top Safety Focus Areas that highlight priorities -in support of a greater commitment to business aviation safety standards.- Both the Top Safety Issues and the Foundations for Safety are meant to promote safety-enhancing discussions and initiatives within flight departments and among owner-flown operations.

Every year, the committee creates this list following their assessment. This assessment takes into consideration safety survey results, risk-based safety and qualitative input from industry and regulatory partners and other NBAA committees and association members.

While the NBAA's annual safety list is directed at the business aviation community, this list is also valuable to the general aviation population.

Top Safety Issues

Through their data analysis, the NBAA has identified these issues to be primary targets of risk mitigation for all business aviation operators:

• Loss of Control Inflight (LOC-I)


• Runway Excursions


• Single-Pilot Operation Safety


• Procedural Compliance


• Ground Handling and Taxi Incidents


• Distraction Management


• Scenario- and Risk-Based Training and Checking


• Positive Safety Culture Promotion


• Inflight Aircraft Collision Risk


• Workforce Competency and Staffing


• Safety Data Sharing and Utilization

Foundations for Safety

According to the NBAA, operation-wide commitment to adopting the following core principles is the basis of a proactive and effective safety system: 

• Risk management


• Professionalism


• Safety Leadership


• Technical Excellence


• Fitness for Duty

For full descriptions of these top safety issues and for additional resources, visit nbaa.org. You can also download a PDF summary of the 2018 Top Safety Focus Areas here.