Bombardier opened its 21st annual Safety Standdown this morning with more than 500 registered attendees on site in Wichita and thousands more anticipated listening online as executives focused on this year’s theme of "intentionally safe.”

Entering its third decade, the Safety Standdown has trained more than 9,000 professionals, Bombardier Business Aircraft vice president and general manager of customer experience Jean-Christophe Gallagher told the audience. Jason Karadimas, safety officer and demonstration pilot for Bombardier Business Aviation, noted last year’s event drew an audience of 2,800 online. Bombardier hopes to double that this year.

The 2017 edition has nearly three-dozen speakers lined up to discuss topics ranging from safety management systems and culture to runway excursions, winter operations and emergency firefighting and live firefighting training. In addition, 10 of the sessions fall under the conference theme.

Underscoring the importance of "intentionally safe"—that safety is a choice and must filter into every level of a flight department—Gallagher encouraged attendees not only to consider the safety information at Safety Standdown, but also to share that information with their organizations.

Keynote speaker Ali Bahrami, the FAA associate administrator for aviation safety, called Safety Standdown a “vital part of our industry” because it stops the clock and forces self-examination. He stressed the importance of sharing data, saying it would be the only way to advance safety.

Bahrami pointed to the successes of the Commercial Aviation Safety Team in helping drive an 83 percent improvement in commercial aviation safety between 1998 and 2008 through use of data. Also emphasized was the importance of safety management systems, with Bahrami calling incorporation of such programs a smart business move for all organizations.

He also updated progress of the agency's shift toward compliance philosophy, which encourages organizations to share unintentional noncompliance issues to enable the FAA and organizations to correct the issue rather than fear enforcement. In the past two years, Bahrami said, “We have cut enforcement actions by 70 percent” and at the same time corrected thousands of issues. “We are seeing a focus on education works,” he said, “the feedback we are getting is helping to drive change.”

John DeLisi, director of the Office of Aviation Safety for the National Transportation Safety Board, stressed that flying safely will not always prevent accidents, saying they are happening for “surprising reasons” such as skipping a preflight check or allowing a second-in-command who is not authorized to fly a revenue flight.

DeLisi also encouraged data sharing and flight data monitoring (FDM). He pointed to a company that, after a year of FDM, discovered bank angles occurring at 45, 50 and even 60 degrees on repositioning flights. After sharing that with the organization’s pilots, those angles returned to a more normal range. This is the value of understanding and sharing data, he said.

Also among the keynote speakers on the opening day was NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen, who noted growing efforts of member companies to share data with 60 such organizations now participating in the FAA Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS). Bolen reiterated Gallagher’s challenge for attendees to “take the lessons learned and share them exponentially.”