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OREM — An audit of Utah Valley University's aviation program found students are confident in the quality of the aircraft they train in, but were unable to describe the safety program the school has in place.
Flight instructors and dispatchers told the three- member audit team they were reluctant to report training and safety concerns because they feared retribution or retaliation, and that reporting procedures were ambiguous.
"The current reporting structure allows for multiple supervisors over individual employees and creates an environment open to discretion in employees reporting safety or training concerns," the report says.
"The current reporting structure allows for multiple supervisors over individual employees and creates an environment open to discretion in employees reporting safety or training concerns."
The audit was performed at the university's request in the wake of a Nov. 17, 2010, crash that killed 34-year-old flight instructor Jamie Bennee and aviation student David Whitney, 25. The two were 21 minutes into a training flight when the Diamond DA20 they were flying spun vertically into a driveway in Payson.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the crash is not yet complete. The independent audit team, which focused on safety issues, was from Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.
"A consistent pattern of topics seem to emerge as discussions with these small groups of flight instructors continued," the audit report states, calling out the need for standardized training in addition to noting the deficiencies in the safety program and reporting structure.
One student complaint could be taken as a back-handed compliment to the instructors' vigor when conducting evaluation flights: "These evaluation flights seemed to far exceed the practical test standards," the report says, adding that students expressed confidence in flight management personnel and "were quite comfortable going to them when they needed to talk about any flight issues."
A university statement says the flight training program has an "excellent safety record" and details post-audit changes the school has or will make.
One change is to relieve the flight program's safety director of other responsibilities so the job can be dedicated entirely to overseeing safety. The safety director will also report directly to the dean of the College of Technology & Computing instead of the assistant dean.
"In addition, a mechanism will be established to better communicate the methods by which safety issues are reported, including better publicizing the university's Ethics Point system, an anonymous and non-punitive reporting system."
Chief instructors will also assume a supervisory role, responsible for addressing the lack of standard procedures the auditors noted.
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