In her farewell speech September 11, 2007, at the Aero Club of Washington, D.C., former Federal Aviation Administrator Marion C. Blakey proclaimed, "This is the golden age of safety, the safest period in the safest mode in the history of the world."

Yeah. Sure. Right.

It’s true, widely cited statistics ostensibly indicate safe skies for air travelers everywhere. However, a more troublesome reality lurks beneath the optimistic numbers.

On November 12, Blakey officially took over as head of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), the nation’s chief defense-industry lobbying group. She certainly isn’t the first federal bureaucrat to make the switch from regulator to highly paid lobbyist. Striding through the "revolving door" to peddle influence is a hallowed Washington tradition, especially during the waning days of lame duck administrations. As an erstwhile FAA chief, Blakey will wield plenty of clout in "Gucci Gulch," the nickname for the Capitol Hill corridors where lobbyists in fancy shoes slap backs with lawmakers.

In her swan song at the Aero Club, Blakey regurgitated the usual bromides about air safety. "I’m very proud of what we at the FAA and as an industry have accomplished in five years," she said. "The launch of the FAA’s Flight Plan proved to be an idea that got better and better as the years have gone by. By linking this strategic plan to pay, we have gotten buy-in from employees in a way that’s rare in government. By asking the aviation community to help us focus our efforts, we created a list of just 30 goals. That makes resources much easier to manage. We’re operating more like a business, and we have the accounting system in place to prove it."

It’s an old canard that business is always inherently more efficient than the public sector. (I think the ripped-off shareholders of Enron and WorldCom would take issue with that notion.) More to the point, the recent emergence of high-profile accidents and systemic vulnerabilities is casting a pall over Blakey’s legacy at the FAA.

These issues came to the fore during the latest Aviation Today webinar: "How Safe Are the Skies? Issues, Fears and Remedies in Air Safety Today." Conducted December 18, this webinar was recorded and archived on www.AviationToday.com. It’s available on the site for access on demand.

This provocative webinar asked some of the world’s top air safety experts to look beyond the numbers and provide a realistic assessment of the state of air safety today. The webinar’s experts provided a summary of the top safety concerns and regulatory actions of the past year — and looked ahead to what we can expect in the area of safety in 2008.

Continued prosperity in aviation has led to crowded skies and gridlocked airports, putting further pressure on an already overburdened air traffic control system. A growing number of near runway collisions has prompted the NTSB to declare that runway safety remains one of the most important issues that still requires remedial action from the FAA.

Notably, the speakers looked at how recent lapses in maintenance procedures on the ground are undermining safety in the skies. They examined why the NTSB has decided to press the FAA to set working hour limits for flight crews, aviation mechanics and now air traffic controllers.

It also came to light during the webinar that efforts by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to keep explosives out of airplane cargo holds is flawed, leaving passenger planes vulnerable to terrorist attack. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General concluded that the TSA maintains too few cargo inspectors, an unreliable database to track violations and spotty procedures for screening cargo.

Aviation Today’s webinar discussed these challenges, providing practical insights that aviation professionals can apply to their jobs and businesses.

Speakers included John J. Goglia, a former member of the NTSB and currently the senior vice president for aviation operations and safety programs at JDA Aviation Technology Solutions; Joy Finnegan, editor-in-chief, Aviation Maintenance magazine; and Ramon Lopez, editor-in-chief, Air Safety Week. To learn more, go to www.AviationToday.com.