On Wednesday 15 June, the conference at the Aviator’s House, organized by the Higher Institute for Flight Safety
As anticipated by the title, the event aimed to conceptually review the activities that during that period of time enabled the Inspectorate to acquire recognized credibility and authority in the field of Flight Safety and to identify lines of action to maintain it.
The conference was opened by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Air Force General Giuseppe Bernardis, who thanked the Chiefs of Staff who succeeded each other since 1991 for having wanted the creation and supported the growth of the Flight Safety Directorate; a Directorate that proposed a new mindset to approach flight, structured on the concept of operational safety, ensuring direct contact with all the Departments of the Armed Forces to which it provided operational, motivational and cultural tools that, over time, raised the safety threshold by significantly reducing the number and frequency of flight accidents.
The summit was attended by the top officials of the Air Force, responsible for the air components of the other Armed Forces and State bodies, as well as the world of Civil Aviation, which considered the indispensable and shared consensus on objectives in the field of Flight Safety. The Vice General Director of ENAC, Mr. Benedetto Marasà, the President of ANSV, Prof. Bruno Franchi, qualified representatives of ENAC, the Civil Protection Department, the Italian Air Club, the Italian Flight Safety Committee, Alitalia, as well as industry press operators were also present.
Brigadier General Luca Valeriani, current Inspector for Flight Safety and moderator of the conference, emphasized that during the reference timeframe the Flight Safety Inspectorate has identified and perfected a series of conceptual, operational and educational tools (study of flight incidents, application of the principles of the ORM and CRM, demoscopical investigations – OSES) that have enabled the establishment and consolidation of a flight safety culture oriented towards operational safety, shared not only within the Italian Air Force but throughout the world of military and state aviation, which has also found strong interest from the academic and production world.
The analysis was reviewed and confirmed by Air Force Brigadier Luciano Battisti, the first Inspector of the Air Force, who explained how the first initiatives in July 1991, despite the initial strong organizational and cultural difficulties, subsequently found growing acceptance among the younger and more operational component of the Air Force, thanks to the authority and credibility enjoyed by the Flight Safety Inspectorate, which presented itself as a direct instrument of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
During the morning, the interventions of the Senior Inspectors SV, General of the Air Force Luigi Maresio, General of the Air Brigade Germano Quattrociocchi, General of the Air Division Fabrizio Draghi, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Minister of Defense, General of the Air Brigade Luca Goretti, the Director of Armería, General Inspector Domenico Esposito, the Vice Director General of ENAC, the President of ANSV, the Safety Manager of Alitalia CAI, ing. Gianluigi Guanziroli, the Director of the Legal Medical Institute of Rome, Brigadier General Piervalerio Manfroni, the former Head and current Head of the Legal Office of the Inspectorate, Brigadier General Giovanni Berretta and Colonel Giuseppe Tosto. All the speakers addressed, from the perspective of their high-level functions, specific topics related to the safety of flight, offering the attendees authoritative points of reflection or presenting programs and projects that, in the future, will be developed and deepened in the direction of an increasingly rooted, shared, and credible culture of Flight Safety.
