By Bernard Gervais

COPA President and CEO

Back in July while at Oshkosh, COPA had a chance to meet with FAA officials that have been working for more than 20 years on what they call General Aviation Joint Safety Committee (GAJSC).  Formed in the mid-1990s, the GAJSC concentrates its efforts on combatting GA fatal accidents. The government and industry group uses a data-driven, consensus-based approach to analyze safety data to develop specific interventions that will mitigate the root causes of accidents.  The industry players that sit on the GAJSC are all the big players and associations from the United States, as well as observers from other countries.

You may see here the similarity between the FAA’s work and the General Aviation Safety Campaign Transport Canada, COPA & sister associations have recently kicked off during the Kelowna Convention last June.  The FAA counterparts have gladly offered TC and COPA the opportunity to look at what they have achieved over the years, and how they went about doing so.  Meetings are planned in the next few weeks, in what we are certain will help to give our Canadian GASC a jump start.