New Air Safety Website

The Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) is expanding its outreach efforts by launching a new website to spread information about efforts to make commercial air travel safer. The new site, www.CAST-safety.org, is geared toward the international aviation community, interested media, government agencies, and the general public. The website details CAST safety enhancements, procedures, and the global strategy that has resulted in the CAST track record of increasing safety and reducing commercial aviation accidents. CAST is refocusing its efforts to build on the success to date, continuing its proactive approach to safety by moving deeper into risk prediction and mitigation strategies. Using aviation industry data, CAST is identifying emerging threats before they result in accidents. CAST is also continuing to spread its methods internationally and has been the model for establishing similar safety programs for general aviation and rotorcraft. Formed in 1998, CAST is a voluntary partnership consisting of all commercial aviation stakeholders — government agencies, airlines, aircraft manufacturers, additional aviation industry members, employee representatives, and others. The CAST mission is to increase air travel safety using an integrated, data-driven approach based on analyzing accident causes, identifying ways to make positive changes and implementing improvements. When the group formed, its goal was to reduce the fatal accident rate by 80 percent over 10 years. By this year, CAST was able to report that by implementing the most promising safety enhancements, the fatality risk of commercial air travel in the United States was reduced by 83 percent.