March 4, 2011
On February 17-18, 2011, Chairman Hersman met with officials at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to follow up on issues raised during the 37th General Assembly meeting. At the General Assembly, the Chairman presented a paper, on behalf of the U.S., on the importance of data protection and its use in accident investigations. While in Montreal, she met with ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin, and Nancy Graham, Director of the Air Navigation Bureau. She also met with the new U.S. Ambassador to the ICAO mission, Duane Woerth, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate last September. The NTSB has been assisting ICAO in the re-write of its Circular 285 on family assistance and participating on several task forces involving accident data and recorder advances.
While in Montreal, the Chairman was briefed on airport winter operations with officials at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. Montreal experiences industry high precipitation with significant snow falls during the winter months. Officials discussed their procedures and equipment that allow airport operations to continue to function during severe inclement weather and major deicing and snow removal operations.