Campaign aims to make flying safer

Since his daughter Lauren was killed in a plane crash five years ago at Brenda Mines, Greg Sewell has been advocating for small aircraft safety reform.

“I have taken it upon myself to try and educate regulators that there are changes required,” he said.

On Saturday, the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association announced a three-year safety campaign, in partnership with Transport Canada and several organizations across Canada, focusing on general aviation, not including commercial or military aviation.

Sewell is on the task force for this campaign, and he is optimistic about the impact it will have on aviation safety.

“I’m hoping that over this three-year period that educating the pilots as opposed to regulating them will have positive results,” he said. “Changing regulation is one thing, but if people are ignoring them, it’s not going to achieve the same results.”

Fifty per cent of aviation accidents occur in small, private planes, and in some years, 100 per cent of fatalities occur in those aircraft, said Aaron McCrorie, director of general aviation for Transport Canada.

One of the most important ways of making general aviation safer is by changing habits and changing the way people think about aviation safety, said McCrorie.

“We can regulate, but we can’t be everywhere all the time,” he said. “We want to work with the community to develop solutions. We want to share that responsibility and help make this community safer.”

Currently, the campaign is in the inception phase while COPA and Transport Canada determine what the main issues are and ways of educating pilots about those issues.

“It’s an awareness campaign, but I think something real will come out of it,” said Bernard Gervais, president and CEO of COPA.

Gervais said his main message to pilots is to fly safely, and “don’t risk your own life and the lives of others.”

“We still have some scoundrels who will just do anything, and they’re most likely the minority, but if we can get these out of our ranks, I’m certain we’ll have a better safety record,” he said.