Flight Safety Foundation
Aviation Week & Space Technology
Distinguished Service Award

is presented to

Dr. Tony Kern
Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

For leadership in controversial decisions to ground nine air tankers during the 2002 U.S. wildland fire season after fatal accidents involving a Lockheed C-130A and a Consolidated PB4Y2; to bar future aerial firefighting contracts for these two airplane types in the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management; and to restrict aircraft operations in cooperation with other firefighting agencies.

Currently the national aviation director of the Forest Service, Dr. Kern pursued changes that were opposed by some government officials and contractorsafter the air tanker accidents and a fatal accident involving an Aérospatiale SA 315B helicopter. His work included convening the Blue Ribbon Panel on Aerial Firefighting, comprising independent specialists who reviewed aviation programs of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and issued a blueprint for improvements.

Dr. Kern joined the Forest Service in 2000 after retiring as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. He was a chief pilot, instructor and flight examiner of B-1B bombers; aircraft commander of KC-135 air-refueling aircraft; and director of military history at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Flight Safety Foundation and the award’s sponsor, Aviation Week & Space Technology, are pleased to recognize Dr. Tony Kern for his contributions to aviation safety.

FSF 56th annual International Air Safety Seminar
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
November 10, 2003

Stuart Matthews
President and CEO
Flight Safety Foundation

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