Remarks as prepared for delivery.

Thank you, José [Botelho]. Good morning, everyone. José noted some of my background. 

I’ve been an aviation professional for more than 33 years. I have flown, and worked, all around the world. 

I was a captain for American Airlines, and I flew in and out of many airports throughout this region. 

I served in executive positions at Qantas and WestJet airlines. 

And today, I serve as the FAA’s Chief Safety Officer, and also currently serving as the FAA’s Acting Administrator. 

Throughout my career, I’ve seen what I call “pockets of excellence” in safety culture around the world. 

I’ve seen this at Qantas, and how they look at safety risk and leverage data to maintain a very mature safety organization. 

I’ve also seen this culture at the FAA and other civil aviation authorities, who work closely with stakeholders to reduce safety risks. 

And I’ve seen excellence in individual professionals -- for instance, like Ambassador Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger – who will speak to us by video today. 

He and his crew knew exactly how to respond when a bird strike caused the engines on their aircraft to lose power shortly after takeoff.

We want to identify, learn from, and model, these “pockets of excellence”. 

That is why we are all here at the ALTA Pan American Safety Summit -- to identify, learn, and model best practices in safety culture. 

In the U.S., we take a proactive safety approach. Now our goal is to become predictive.  

We’ve seen the benefits of Safety Management Systems, or SMS, in driving down safety risk for commercial aviation, which is why we are working to expand SMS requirements to manufacturers, airports, and aviation service providers.

And from proactive initiatives like SMS, fatigue risk management, and other efforts, we have gained a significant amount of safety data. 

The more we can collect, analyze, and share safety data, and discuss safety issues openly and transparently between stakeholders throughout the world, the better we can achieve a fully predictive aviation safety system. 

Of course, safety challenges evolve and new ones appear. It’s why we must mature from just preventative … to actually predictive – and culture and data are key to this. 

We want to see a Just Culture throughout the region, where aviation professionals can openly report unintentional mistakes and safety concerns without fear of punishment. 

We’re encouraged that a number of nations in this region are working to establish non-punitive safety reporting systems. In this regard, I would like to recognize efforts to establish collaborative safety teams modeled after the U.S. Commercial Aviation Safety Team, or CAST, as we call it. 

Brazil’s “B-CAST” is gaining traction … and other CAST-like teams are being developed in Argentina … Columbia … Ecuador … Mexico … and Peru. 

The FAA is eager to support these efforts and continue sharing what we’ve learned in this area.  

We’re also actively expanding our portfolio of data collection and analytics tools. And evolving toward using predictive analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to yield cleaner, consistent streams of safety data. 

Through these tools, we’ll be able to more effectively share safety data with industry stakeholders and international partners. In fact, one of the FAA’s strategic priorities is to develop a global safety information exchange.  

And while SMS and safety reporting are essential programs to have in place, it’s important to stress that a mature safety culture is what makes these programs successful. Safety culture is about the attitudes, values, and behaviors that our people have.

In a mature safety culture, aviation professionals feel empowered to speak up, courageously, in tough situations. For instance, last month, there was an incident at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, in which an FAA controller stopped an international flight from taking off when she saw smoke. 

The pilot downplayed it as “normal”. But the controller pushed back and held fast, with safety being her priority. It turned out that there was a significant issue with the bearing on the landing gear that could have led to a significant event had they taken off.

We also witnessed another great example of strong safety culture recently when a team of FAA controllers in Palm Beach, Florida, worked together when the pilot of a Cessna Caravan became incapacitated. The passenger who took the controls had no flying experience. Just imagine it – they had NO flying experience!

The team of controllers succeeded because they had a flexible culture without a hierarchy that strangles collaboration. Controllers asserted themselves and shared information freely, knowing they could trust each other to do their part. And through their skill and teamwork, they guided the plane down safely.

Clearly, a mature safety culture relies on all safety professionals exercising courage, trust, openness, transparency, and supportiveness. 

These values are also essential when we address the subject of pilot mental health.

We need to emphasize to our pilots, and all aviation professionals, that they should ask for help the moment they begin to experience emotional or mental health challenges. They should start treating the underlying problems before they become worse. 

And we must provide increased support to aviation professionals, and there should be no stigma, or fears, about coming forward and being open about mental health challenges.

Our chief FAA flight surgeon, Dr. Susan Northrup, will more fully discuss our efforts on pilot fatigue and mental health during the first panel this morning. 

In all of the areas I’ve discussed, the FAA is eager to partner with you, and continue sharing best practices throughout this region, for the benefit of all of us.

For example, we’ve partnered with Brazil on many fronts. Their leadership was instrumental on the Joint Authorities Technical Review of the 737 MAX aircraft. 

And after the pandemic began, the FAA partnered with Brazil on issuing safety guidance to operators carrying cargo on passenger jets, and also for carrying dry ice used in packaging COVID-19 vaccines. 

On the maintenance front, we’re working with Brazil on implementation procedures that will allow for reciprocal oversight of aircraft maintenance, overhaul, and repair activity.

We want to see more of this kind of collaboration throughout the region. To support that effort, we have representatives in Brasilia, Miami, Panama City, and soon we will have a new representative in Mexico City. 

Collaboration is essential, because this industry is changing faster and faster. As safety organizations, we must be agile, so we can enable the tremendous innovation that we’re seeing throughout the aerospace field today.  

The FAA is currently reviewing recommendations from an aviation rulemaking committee on how to enable safe, routine, drone operations beyond visual line of sight, or BVLOS, as we call it. 

We’re also developing a phased rulemaking plan for these operations – with initial phases focusing on BVLOS flights at low altitudes and creating drone-specific airworthiness requirements. Follow-on phases will clear the way for more tailored approval paths for package delivery. 

And we’re looking ahead to Advanced Air Mobility, and expecting to certify the first of these aircraft around the 2024 timeframe, provided safety allows.

These types of operations have the potential to someday connect smaller communities with big cities. Before this vision can be realized, however, we must address the myriad of technical and operational safety concerns.

With the kind of innovation we continue to see, and the retirements hastened by the pandemic experience, this industry needs new people, including those with new skill sets. 

The FAA is reaching out in creative ways to recruit a diverse, next generation workforce. We run targeted hiring campaigns to encourage more women, minorities, and individuals from underrepresented communities to submit applications for air traffic control positions. 

We’re also providing financial grants to support aviation curriculums at high schools and colleges to develop the next generation of pilots and aviation maintenance technicians.

It behooves us all to make every effort to showcase the broad and diverse types of jobs available throughout the aviation sector, so we remain robust for years to come.

We’re going to need the best people not just to help us make aviation safer, but also to make it more sustainable. 

The U.S. Aviation Climate Action Plan that was announced last fall seeks to accelerate action to address the climate impacts of aviation, with a national goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

The FAA is doing our part. We’re implementing more fuel efficient air traffic procedures.

We’re working with industry to develop aircraft technologies that will reduce noise, emissions, and fuel burn; and expedite integration of these technologies into current and future aircraft.  

And we’re also working to scale up the production of sustainable aviation fuels, which will offer significant life-cycle greenhouse gas emission reductions.   

As much as we are doing domestically, we are committed to working across the globe bilaterally and at ICAO to reduce the aviation sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, and on robust standards that integrate climate protection and safety.  

To guide us there, we need ICAO to establish a long-term climate goal – a single goal that we can all work toward as we invest and plan for the future.

I am looking forward to a productive conference. Let’s find those “pockets of excellence” in safety culture, and export them throughout the region, and the world.

And as a community, let’s also work together to achieve sustainability, and share ideas to recruit the next generation of aviation professionals.

As we do these things, we will make a lasting contribution to the success of aviation throughout the world.