Cirrus CEO Dale Klapmeier accepts the award.
AOPA’s Air Safety Institute has created a new annual safety award named in honor of Joseph T. Nall, and this week named Cirrus Aircraft as the first recipient. “Over the past decade, Cirrus has earned one of the best safety records in the industry, and we are proud to acknowledge their work,” said George Perry, senior vice president at ASI. “Cirrus has doubled down on safety, working with its owners group and making investments in training and transition courses, to lower the accident rate for Cirrus aircraft to less than half the industry average.”
Cirrus created a video-intensive, type-specific training program called “Cirrus Approach” that emphasizes deciding in advance when to activate the full-aircraft parachute system, ASI said. The company also worked with the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association to create a culture in which pilots who pulled the chute were applauded — not criticized or second-guessed — for their actions. In 2015, with more than 6,000 aircraft flying, the number of fatal accidents involving Cirrus airplanes fell to the lowest level since 2001, when fewer than 300 Cirrus aircraft had been produced, ASI said.
The award is named in honor of Joseph T. Nall, who served as a member of the NTSB from 1986 until 1989, when he was killed in a plane crash while on NTSB business in Venezuela.
