The Alaska Region Forest Service has a great reason to celebrate this summer – they have had 10 years of flying with no accidents. Considering the harsh environment that Alaska provides for aviators, they should be celebrating. General aviation, when compared to the airlines, has a pretty poor record of safety.
The reason? Training is probably the biggest factor, although quality, well-maintained equipment also plays a role.
Additionally, the Alaska Region Forest Service has placed a huge emphasis on safety in general. That is, each employee who flies must take an annual aviation safety course, must attend a pre-flight safety briefing, and must wear float/survival gear when flying. Subsequently, each employee is empowered with not flying if they deem the weather or air-worthiness of the aircraft to be questionable.
Each pilot who is contracted by the Forest Service must meet strict safety standards and must have their aircraft inspected by the Forest Service.
[Source: Vertical Mag]