A "Safety Standdown" is a pre-planned event where a company, organization, or group of people suspend normal operations for a given amount of time (a few hours, all day, etc.) to discuss safety issues. The idea is to bring the entire group together, including top management, to identify and remedy safety issues.
Safety Standdowns are frequently done in the military (an entire base or a single ship, etc.) but also are done in many high-risk industries and companies. For example, Bombardier in partnership with NBAA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, will host the 16th Annual Safety Standdown USA, a non-commercial effort to improve business aviation safety, in October of this year. More information can be found at http://www.safetystanddown.com/.
The FAA Safety Team sponsors an annual Aviation Safety Standdown for pilots and mechanics in April of every year. In case you missed one of the meetings in your area, we have a Safety Standdown page at FAASafety.gov. We invite you to go to http://www.faasafety.gov/standdown/default.aspx and check out the resources there. There are links to the Advanced Preflight pamphlet, to the new Online course titled, "Avoiding Loss of Control," and to the four video presentations used at the individual meetings. There are also links to articles on this year's topics.
You can also find this Safety Standdown page by going to the Home page at FAASafety.gov and looking at the Hot Topics portal. The Safety Standdown picture link will come into view in a few moments. Just click on it!
