Risk Management Magazine

I was sitting in my office, reviewing risk assessments for an upcoming training exercise, when my phone rang. I don’t get a lot of calls, but when I do, it’s usually a safety-related question or bad news. Unfortunately, this was the latter.

After 24 years in Army aviation and six more as a civilian helicopter emergency medical services pilot, I recently returned to the military community as a Department of the Army civilian (DAC) aviation safety inspector. In just six months on the job, I discovered a trend that has not changed since I first left the Army — the lack of near-miss reporting.

It was my first deployment to Afghanistan, and I was involved in a nighttime mixed-aircraft, six-ship air assault to insert troops for a cordon-and-search for a high-value target. It was also my first air assault of the deployment.