2019

Dates

15–17 October 2019

Venue

Hyatt Hotel, Canberra

Conference dinner and Sir Reginald Ansett Memorial Lecture: Great Hall, Parliament House

Supporters

AeroPearl Pty Ltd – Aireon – Airservices Australia – Australian and International Pilots Association – Australian Federation of Airline Pilots – Australian Transport Safety Bureau – Boeing Australia – Canberra Airport – Civil Aviation Safety Authority – Department of Infrastructure, Transport Regional Development and Communications – Dick Smith – L3 Harris – Northrop Grumman – Pilatus – Qantas – QBE Insurance – Qudos Bank – Recreational Aviation Australia – Rex Regional Airlines – Thales

Keynote speaker

Dr Fang Liu

Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization: Sir Reginald Ansett Memorial Lecture

Topics

The conference opened with the Aviation Policy Group—the heads of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development; the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Airservices Australia and Defence aviation giving an overview of aviation safety issues in their respective domains.

For the first time, a dedicated conference app allowed Safeskies’ delegates to access extensive speaker and session information, as well as information about the venue and Canberra. The app also gave them the opportunity to participate more effectively in proceedings through its interactive question function.

Following sessions looked at human performance in complex systems, training and new technologies. A new session named to honour Dr Rob Lee, a longstanding Safeskies committee member and supporter, and world-leading SMS and HF expert, presented aviation human factors from a variety of perspectives.

Day 2 opened with overseas speaker, Gretchen Haskins, on the pleasing results from global helicopter safety collaboration, through Heli Offshore. Other day 2 sessions were devoted to drone technology: safety around airports and the legal aspects of drone operation.

Red Bull air race-winning pilot, Matt Hall, gave a lively account of his safety preparation for air racing, and the 2019 conference closed with Captain Deborah Lawrie (the first woman airline pilot for a major airline in Australia) giving the PG Taylor address.

Concurrently on day 1, Safeskies held its first safety managers’ forum.

For more detail, see the 2019 program