ALEA Safety First Program Newsletters

March 2006

Keith Johnson
Safety Program Manager

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY – GRANT FUNDING

I have received several inquiries about how to obtain grant funding from the Department of Homeland Security. If you need information on how to apply for funding I suggest you go online and download the guide book that takes you through the application process. For those of you that are in “High-Risk” areas, DHS has stated that it will shift more anti-terrorism funds to regions that are identified as likely targets. For those of you who have been successful receiving grant funds, send me your success story and I will publish it so others learn from your success.

LAW ENFORCEMENT AVIATION ACCIDENT SUMMARY

I have completed recapping the 2005 law enforcement aviation accidents. First, let me congratulate all of you that did not have an accident in 2005. While we have much to do to eliminate accidents, 2005 was the best year in recent history with only 11 accidents. I have completed a summary of all law enforcement accidents beginning with 1999. ALEA members can download the entire report in PDF format.

Page-1 consists of a summary of the accidents by causal factors. Loss of control made up 40 of 109 accidents. Nothing new. There were many more actual “loss of control” accidents. I categorized them under different names i.e. autorotation, hydraulics off and tail rotor failure training, and disorientation. If you add them all up, 63 of 109 were due to loss of control.
Almost 10% of our accidents occur doing emergency procedure training. I strongly urge you to contract this training if you don’t have an experienced CFI with lots of time teaching emergency procedures. It’s much cheaper than having to replace or repair an aircraft. I recommend that CFI’s have a minimum of 2,000 hours of helicopter time, and 500 hours of instruction time. I emphasize “minimum.” This won’t be enough for many of us. We need to be realistic about our flying skills. Most of us tend to over rate our skills.

At the risk of repeating myself, we pilots need to focus more on our flying. It is clear that many of us are being distracted from our primary duty, flying the aircraft safely. We can’t support the ground troops if we wreck our aircraft. Remember – Safety First.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE TRAINING

The 2006 ALEA Conference is almost upon us. Jim DiGiovanna, Education Program Manager has put together a great program again this year. For those of you that are unit managers, commanding officers, officer-in-charge of your aviation program, ALEA is offering a great deal again this year. The first 50 people to register for the Aviation Unit Manager Course will attend for free, plus your conference registration fee will be waived as well. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from a group of the most experienced subject matter experts on how to manage an aviation unit.

SAFETY LEADERSHIP

Safety is the most important issue in managing an aviation unit. The “safety culture” of the unit is measured by compliance with standards relating to safety, operations and training. Safety is a function of management effectiveness. Safety is the most important issue facing a unit manager. It is reflected in SOP’s, actions by supervisors, and the willingness to abort missions when the risks outweigh the benefit of completing the mission. A suspect lost today will be caught tomorrow. The need to capture a suspect is never worth a police officer’s life. His/her leadership sets the tone for the aviation program.

Leadership failure and a poor safety culture are reflected in most police aviation accidents. This is true for large and small departments. It is evident in high profile organizations such as NASA. In the wake of the Columbia accident, 11 managers were demoted, and the chief resigned.

Eighty-one seconds into flight 3 blocks of foam broke off of the fuel tank and struck the left wing of the orbiter. Two cameras, one at Cape Canaveral and one at Cocoa Beach captured the strike. Photo analysts asked for permission to enhance the video, but were denied. For eight days different groups of debris analysts lobbied shuttle managers for permission to inspect the wing using Defense Department satellites. Managers blocked the requests. Worried engineers could not bring themselves to break the chain of command. The accident investigation commission placed the blame squarely on NASA’s management. Management had felt the need to take the flight to keep the momentum of the program going, even after the Challenger accident. Does this sound familiar. Too often in law enforcement we become too mission focused. It happened to NASA, and it can happen to you. Leaders need to stand up and call a timeout when things don’t feel right. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t right. Your decisions will not always be popular. Listen to your gut, and do the right thing, the first time, every time. Your peoples’ lives depend on you.

Hope to see you in New Orleans.

Remember – Safety First!

Keith

Keith Johnson
Safety Program Manager