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Air Safety News Conference
Presenters: Kirsten Stevens, Greg Holbrook,
Dennis Bevington, Peter Julian, Ian Bron

In recent years, Transport Canada has been quietly transferring oversight responsibility and the burden of liability to companies and workers in the aviation industry.  This shift has played out while implementing Safety Management Systems (SMS), what is known as "an additional layer of protection".  While the theory of SMS increases the responsibility of companies and workers for safety, it is not meant to be a replacement for traditional methods of oversight.

The potential repercussions of this move have caused great concern to many people in and around the aviation industry. Separately, and despite great hardship, they worked tirelessly to encourage the industry to recognize and act on the perceived problems with Transport Canada's SMS implementation, and pre-existing issues. When a few of these advocates combined efforts, the Round Table idea took flight. Hard work and dedication allowed for it to be arranged successfully in a short period of time and with considerable success.

Following the Aviation Safety Round Table of April 21st 2009, the participants committed to continue working together through this website. The website aims to allow media and members of the public to experience the Round Table: to see and hear the revelations made by pilots, industry insiders, whistleblowers and accident victims.

Through this website, an alliance of individuals and industry representatives is being formed to seek resolution to The Issues identified, to hold Transport Canada accountable to the public, and to restore faith in the safety of Canadian skies.

Please visit our Mission Statement for more information.

Special Thanks

Many people put in countless hours of work to make the Round Table happen; thanks to all of them. Special thanks is due David Hutton of the Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform (FAIR) for his observations about air safety, for documenting (and videoing) our stories and our concerns, and for his major contribution to the development of this website.

Please visit External Resources for direct links to FAIR's perspective on air safety in Canada.

Latest News

Updated: Petition for Judicial Inquiry Tabled in House of Commons

Submitted by dhc2widow on Thu, 12/10/2009 - 23:00
Topics:
Peter Julian

On November 19, 2009 MP Peter Julian (NDP) tabled the first batch of signed petitions calling for a judicial inquiry into aviation safety oversight.  Click here for the full text of the petition tabled.

According to the rules of the House of Commons, the government is required to reply to the petition within 45 days of its presentation.  If the petition remains without a response at the expiration of this time, a Committee of the House, designated by the Member presenting the petition, is required to look into the Ministry's failure to respond.   Read more...

Aviation Security Round Table to be held on February 10th

Submitted by dhc2widow on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 17:52

On February 10, 2010 Dennis Bevington MP (Western Arctic), New Democrat Transport Critic will be co-chairing with the Honourable Joseph Volpe (Eglinton - Lawrence), Liberal Transport Critic a round table discussion on aviation security on Parliament Hill. The round table will provide a forum for debate and discussion of the various issues surrounding recently implemented increased security measures.

The round table will be held in room253-D Centre Block. It will start at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time with an end time of 12:30 p.m.   Read more...

Aviation Leadership Forum: Mark Your Calendars

Submitted by dhc2widow on Mon, 02/01/2010 - 14:24

Leadership is the key to achieving aviation safety excellence and will demand innovation, strategic thinking, passion, skill and most importantly cooperation. In 2007 the Forum was inspired to bring together aviation stakeholders to share best practices around Safety and Leadership.    Read more...

TSB Releases Update on Fatal Saturna Island Crash

Submitted by dhc2widow on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 01:00
Topics:

Six people who died in B.C. float plane crash couldn't escape stuck doors
Published Thursday January 28th, 2010

By Terri Theodore
The Canadian Press


VANCOUVER, B.C. - If the float plane that crashed and sank off Saturna Island, B.C., had been equipped with doors that ejected, some of the six people killed may have survived.

The recommendation has been made by the Transportation Safety Board at least twice in the past, but no changes have been made.   Read more...

Response to Walrus Article Criticizes the TSB

Submitted by dhc2widow on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 14:15

Safer Trip

In “Fly At Your Own Risk” (November), Carol Shaben alerts us to Transport Canada’s dilatory response to questions surrounding the inadequacy of its safety oversight program: an apparently irrelevant $690,000 consultants’ study. Indeed, this is precisely the type of bureaucratic game I discussed some eighteen years ago in connection with the disintegration of the Transportation Safety Board’s sad predecessor, the Canadian Aviation Safety Board, in my book Improbable Cause.   Read more...

Pilot Convictions of Criminal Negligence Overturned

Submitted by dhc2widow on Fri, 12/18/2009 - 21:00
Topics:

By: Kevin Rollason
Winnipeg Free Press
18/12/2009 1:00 AM

The family of an elderly man who died from injuries suffered in a plane crash is upset that the pilot's convictions for killing him and injuring four others have been overturned by the province's highest court.

In a unanimous decision released on Thursday, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled pilot Mark Tayfel should not have been convicted of criminal negligence causing death and four counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm after his 2007 trial.   Read more...

Buffalo Joe says TC's Version of SMS is Hurting Business

Submitted by dhc2widow on Thu, 12/17/2009 - 01:00

Elizabeth McMillan
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, December 16, 2009
 
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - One Northern aviator says the way Transport Canada monitors aviation safety practices at his company is crippling business and focuses on paperwork instead of safety.   Read more...

SMS Oversight Cited in 2008 Fatal Accident

Submitted by dhc2widow on Wed, 12/09/2009 - 19:45
Topics:

Plane that crashed, killing 5, was overloaded: TSB
 
The Canadian Press

Date: Wednesday Dec. 9, 2009 8:57 PM ET

EDMONTON — A company plane that crashed last year in Alberta, killing five people, was overloaded and not properly maintained, says a report by the Transportation Safety Board.

The aircraft, owned by A.D. Williams Engineering, crashed on March 28, 2008, near Wainwright.

Company president Reagan Williams, who piloted the single-engine Piper Malibu, his two senior employees and two contractors all died.   Read more...

NDP Transport Critic Calls for Review of Canada's Aviation Safety Regime

Submitted by dhc2widow on Thu, 12/03/2009 - 01:00
Topics:
NDP Transport Critic Dennis Bevington

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 2, 2009
 
NEW DEMOCRAT TRANSPORT CRITIC CALLS FOR REVIEW OF CANADA’S AVIATION SAFETY REGIME

Watch Dennis Bevington on CTV's Power Play
 
OTTAWA – Transport Canada needs to review its entire Aviation Safety program following revelations by safety inspectors and mechanics testifying before the House of Commons Transport Committee, said New Democrat Transport Critic Dennis Bevington (Western Arctic).   Read more...

Air Safety Regulation on "The Current" (CBC Radio)

Submitted by dhc2widow on Thu, 12/03/2009 - 00:00
Topics:
Justice Virgil Moshansky

There has been some disturbing testimony this week at the House of Commons Transport Committee. It has centred around the safety of Canada's passenger airplanes. There have been stories of illegal refueling ... masking tape holding electrical cords in place and a shortage of airplane inspectors.

 Click on the play button to hear audio (approx. 24min.)   Read more...