NTSB Chief: Safety Must Remain Constant in Aviation

March 12, 2005
Safety leads to public confidence, Ellen Engleman Connors said of her job as the nation's top transportation-safety official.

Safety leads to public confidence, Ellen Engleman Connors said of her job as the nation's top transportation-safety official.

Terrorism may have shifted the public's focus to security, but safety must remain the constant in aviation, and there's no greater place to emphasize that than at airports such as Dallas/Fort Worth, the chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board said.

"It has to be 'and,' Engleman Connors said Friday at the International Women in Aviation conference. "Safety and security. They're intricately linked."

At the conference, which stresses industry successes, Engleman Connors spoke to more than 2,000 people about maintaining a culture of safety in aviation.

Amy Laboda, editor in chief of Aviation for Women, said, "We have a significant number of our members who are involved in government -- from air traffic controllers to pilots to administrators and inspectors." Engleman Connors "epitomizes the pinnacle of where women can go in aviation today, which is right to the top," Laboda said.

Aviation is connected with Homeland Security, Engleman Connors said. When a plane goes down, such as American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed in Queens, N.Y., in November 2001, invariably the question is whether the nation is under attack.

The NTSB's role is to independently study accidents and make recommendations to transportation groups, companies and agencies on how to make travel safer. Think CSI, except replace "crime" with "accident." But the role starts with discounting terrorism.

"That question is a part of our national fabric now," she said.

Engleman Connors and her colleagues are noticed by the public only immediately after serious disasters. But the board's major role is to campaign for safety changes in the industry.

Experts credit Engleman Connors with giving the board teeth by, paradoxically, being less adversarial. The number of unaddressed NTSB recommendations is at the lowest level since 1975.

Some of that Engleman Connors credits to "a woman's touch." For the first time, the five-member NTSB board has a female majority. Marion Blakey, head of the Federal Aviation Administration and Engleman Connors' predecessor, is credited by ex-members with helping the NTSB open up to the public.

In turn, Engleman Connors openly promotes the FAA's research into runway safety at Dallas/Fort Worth.

It's all about thinking ahead and preventing the next problem, she said. And, hopefully, keeping the public confident in the system.

Ellen Engleman Connors is the second woman in a row to lead the National Transportation Safety Board.

The female agency leaders in the Department of Transportation are Marion Blakey (aviation), Mary Peters (highway), Jennifer Dorn (transit) and Annette Sandberg (motor carrier safety).