Commitment to Safety Statement
My name is Michael Rossi and I am a senior at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach Florida. I am an Aviation Safety major and I live the “Jettlink Safety Culture” all day, every day. Before I get into the body of my commitment statement, I would like to make one thing very clear.
Committed aviation safety professionals do not do what we do just because we can; we do it because we WANT to do it and make our industry better!
Losing Kelly in August of 2006 was something that I was not prepared for. For the first time, an aviation fatality had affected my life. I remember on the flight back to EWR thinking “Kel, I don’t know what happened today, I don’t know why it happened, but I’m gonna fix this. I promise.” I am at Embry Riddle because of him and to make our industry safer for all.
I am dedicated to the safety of my passengers and crew members aboard every aircraft in our industry at any given time so that everyone remains safe from known hazards and can come home and fulfill his or her last promise.
Some people have told me that I’m not going to know every crewmember or passenger that flies for our airline or uses the industry for air travel. Although, this may be true, at my airline, they are my focus and responsibility. I look to treating every crewmember and passenger as a personal accountability of mine. Life is very fragile and in my “Not on my watch” program, I will do everything in my power to make sure that a fatality does not happen “on my watch” as your aviation safety professional.
s ensuring that my crewmembers can come to work, my passengers can fly on our airline and anyone who participates in patron with our company gets to their destination safely while we as the safety professionals fight a battle of mixing human factors with machine and the unpredictable factors that sometimes play a role.
We may be able to tackle the challenge of human error in the flight deck one day, but we are not going to ever have a total grip on factors such as weather or structural failures. How we work with what we are given proves how committed we are to a safer future and the well being of our passengers and crew.
From a structural perspective, we have had some major advancement in technology that helps in detecting corrosion, stress concentrations, and fatigue cracks. On the weather side we have installed wonderful weather relaying devices for our air traffic controllers and flight deck crews but we cannot ever be too “comfortable” with these advancements and must try to remain ahead of the unpredictable.
Another unpredictable and sometimes sabotaging factor in safety are disagreements between professionals. Disagreements and difference in opinion will happen. Not everyone is going to agree but as long as the disagreement is constructive and you as the crew member or panel member have an open mind to take suggestions, it’s ok for them to happen.
I can say without hesitation that I am open minded to difference in opinion. I will defend what I say but I will take into account all collaboration that results from any form of publication of an idea or concern. If it keeps my passengers and crews alive, I don’t mind learning and getting answers.
With the constant movement of airplanes we are never going to have a zero accident rate, but my commitment to this industry is to reduce our fatality rate by tackling some challenges that have been surfacing over the years. If we can take what we have learned and not allow history to repeat itself, or work on post impact issues to increase survivability, I am confident that we can reduce our fatality rate one step at a time.
In conclusion, loosing Kelly was a terrible event in my life and in the many lives of those who cared for him. We lost a crewmember, uncle, brother, boyfriend and friend. My commitment to safety has Kelly in mind everyday remembering his love to bring joy to others. I am committed to a safer future, not only for him but for the rest of us. To A Safe and Fulfilling Future!