In 1992, former Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) Vice Chairman John H. Enders and former FSF Board of Governors Member Jean Pinet created the FSF Icarus Committee to explore ways to reduce human factors-related aviation accidents. Although the analysis of human factors in aviation safety already was being pursued in many places, the Foundation believed that it was important to initiate additional action to synthesize what had been learned. The intent was, and is, to augment and enhance — not to replace — the Foundation’s core activities, by posing questions and suggesting actions to the board and, through the governors, to the worldwide aviation community.

Despite the increasing general level of understanding of accidents and their causes, the emergence of new technologies for aircraft design, the development of training methods and equipment, and the growing ability to analyze human behavior and decision-making factors, aviation accidents and serious incidents continue to occur. They include events that were the direct result of decisions and actions of well-trained and highly experienced pilots, although these decisions and actions may have been enabled by the decisions of other people. That the accident rate and incident rate have not declined proportionately to advances in technology is the problem that the Icarus Committee was created to address.

The Icarus Committee has received support from major aircraft and equipment manufacturers, airlines, research organizations and regulatory agencies worldwide.

The committee comprises a small, informal group of recognized international aviation specialists who have extensive experience in the human aspects of design, manufacturing, flight operations, maintenance, operating environments and research. These individuals represent a cross section of current human factors thinking in the international aviation community. While some of the world’s regions are not directly represented, members of the committee are generally familiar with the many industrial, educational and social cultures that intersect aviation operations worldwide.

One international aviation leader applauded the committee’s efforts as a “small group of wise people” addressing questions that are very important to the aviation community and its customers. He urged the committee to keep itself “lean” in number so as not to lose the edge to identify quickly the key issues.

Achieving this required a team representative of all the players in the field. The challenge was to keep the group small and informal enough to enable vigorous and candid debate, yet broad enough to bring as many viewpoints as possible into the discussions. Additional participants with special expertise routinely are invited to join the committee in specific discussions.

Although the committee has gathered together competitors and potentially oppositional bodies, the respected rule for its deliberations has been to speak with objectivity and openness. This makes its meetings extremely productive. The neutral context of Flight Safety Foundation also facilitates the committee’s work.

* Members of Board of Governors Executive Committee