Starting February 7 and continuing on alternating weeks, the four regional aviation offices held “stand down” training at their respective office locations. This was a departure from the usual annual air safety investigator stand down training that has been held at our training center in Ashburn, Virginia. Investigators from all of the regions, (Eastern, Central, and Western Pacific) except Alaska, due to its remote location, were able to cover their neighboring regions for accident responses while their training was being conducted.
Tom Haueter, Director of the Office of Aviation Safety, Sandy Rowlett, Deputy Director for Regional Operations, and Alex Lemishko, Assistant Deputy Director for Regional Operations, made the hop-scotch cross country journey to all the offices, including Alaska, where they were met with sub-zero temperatures, strong winds, and sidewalks like ice rinks -- no lasting injuries or cases of frost bite were reported.
Haueter and Rowlett discussed ongoing issues and projects at headquarters, and responded to questions from the air safety investigators and regional chiefs. “We also discussed standardization, budget, and accident launch criteria—such as launching on every fatal homebuilt aircraft, and investigating child restraint systems in support of the 2011 child and youth transportation safety initiative, among other topics,” said Haueter. “Alex Lemishko gave a tutorial on report and probable cause standardization, including coding, and maintaining accuracy and consistency in the quality and content of the accident brief narratives.”
Each region developed and presented its training agenda. “At every location, the training had educational value, was interesting and of high quality,” said Rowlett. “Also, the opportunity to have all of the investigators together was a rarity, and gave them a chance to exchange information and ideas about their investigations. Since teleworking became available several years ago, and has been widely adopted in the regions, it had been over a year since many of the investigators had been in the regional office, or met with their peers. In a couple of instances, some had never even met each other!”
Here is a sampling of some of the courses and presentations from the regions: Making Documents 508 Compliant, by: Kristi Dunks, Craig Hatch, Ralph Hicks, Heidi Moats and Jennifer Rodi; Light Sport and Experimental Aircraft Investigations, by: Kristi Dunks; Risk Management (and also changes in OSHA guidance), by: Jennifer Rodi; Digital Data Sources and Interpretation, by: Tim Sorenson, Jason Aguilera and Ed Malinowski; Lessons Learned on Major Accident Investigations, by: Tim LeBaron, Leah Yeager, Kristi Dunks, Jim Struhsaker, Dennis Hogenson, and Corky Smith; Administrative Procedures, by: Monica Stachowiak, Cheryl Cook, and Cheryl Christian; and Aircraft Recovery, Storage and Follow-up Investigation, by: Pam Sullivan.
In addition, investigators from the engine manufacturer Rotax gave a presentation to the Western Pacific region. All regions received information about the employee assistance program (EAP). For those regions that needed it, respirator recurrent training and fit tests were provided.
Steve Gottlieb, Eastern Region chief, ended his region’s training session with a trip to the bowling alley.
“I congratulate all of the participants and presenters for a very productive and successful series of stand downs. Feedback from the investigators was quite complimentary.” Haueter said.
Eastern Region aviation training class.