Independent Safety Review
In December 2009, Air France set up the independent safety review on flight safety. Comprising eight acknowledged independent experts of international standing chosen to combine French and Anglo-Saxon mindsets, the review team looked into all the internal operating modes, decision-making processes and practices that might have an impact on the safety of Air France flights, by combining a systematic viewpoint on safety with practical experience in running operations at airlines comparable in size to Air France.
On this basis, following an inquiry that ran throughout 2010, the experts presented, in January 2011, 35 recommendations with a view to helping the airline pursue its ongoing flight safety improvement process.
Air France is the only airline to have submit itself, on its sole initiative, to the opinion of a team of external experts. By implementing their recommendations, which combine the best practices observed individually in other airlines worldwide, Air France will place its flight safety performance at the highest level possible.
Members of the Independent Safety Review Team:
Curt Graeber, PhD, chairs the Independent Safety Review Team. As a former Senior Technical Fellow and Chief Engineer at Boeing with responsibility for Human Factors who was also previously Chief of Flight Human Factors research for NASA, he was a member of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger accident. He has also headed numerous international scientific initiatives devoted to flight safety and the development of international standards.
Erik Hollnagel, PhD, is a professor at Mines ParisTech (Ecole des Mines de Paris), where he occupies the Chair of Industrial Safety. He works as an expert on safety management, resilience engineering, and human factors in many countries, covering a broad range of activities in the aerospace, nuclear and medical fields.
John Marshall, served as a fighter pilot and senior officer with the US Air Force before joining Delta Air Lines as Vice President, Corporate Safety and Compliance. On the strength of his long experience of flight operations, aircraft maintenance, safety and airports he now serves as an independent aviation consultant.
Jean Pariès, is a Civil Aviation Engineer. A former member of the ICAO Human Factors and Flight Safety Study Group, he currently acts as a safety consultant in numerous fields, from nuclear to aviation, hospitals, and ground and maritime transport.
Nick Sabatini is a professional pilot and a former FAA administrative officer responsible for certification and oversight of United States airlines. A consultant in a wide range of mainly safety-related fields, he is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a member of the Flight Safety Foundation Board of Governors.
Geoff Sartori, B767 flight captain, recently retired from business after acting as Head of Safety and Principal Safety Consultant for the Qantas group. His career at Qantas took him to several senior management positions in the airline’s Flight Operations division.
Roger Whitefield, flight captain, is a former chief pilot of the Concorde and B747 divisions and former Head of Safety and Quality at British Airways. He is currently an advisor to the Qantas Safety and Security Executive Committee and a non-executive Board member of the British Civil Aviation Authority.
David Woods, PhD, is a professor at Ohio State University (Columbus) with 30 years’ experience in research into decision-making, human factors and resilience in high-risk industries such as healthcare, nuclear, and aviation. He was an advisor in the investigation into the accident to Space Shuttle Columbia.
Erik Hollnagel, Jean Pariès and David Woods are Founder Members of the Resilience Engineering Association.
