“If you feel that you need accidents to convince you that there are readily removable risks in your flight operations, you are part of the problem.”

Or, as has been said in this newsletter, the absence of accidents is not proof of the absence of risks or hazards. The need to guard against complacency is all the more important given the often self-congratulatory remarks of FAA officials, airline executives and legislators that this is an unprecedented era free of fatal accidents. As indicated in this publication, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) lists 26 accidents for 2006, the most recent year for the compilation of such data. The NTSB counts not only fatal accidents, but also non-fatal ones involving substantial damage to equipment. (Besco, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )