Flight Safety Foundation’s Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS) Program has completed its 400th audit.
The program, which in Australia is run out of Flight Safety Foundation’s Melbourne base, supports operators in the resources sector, as well as humanitarian, government and insurance organisations in their oversight of contacted aviation activities, Flight Safety Foundation said.
It comprised a risk-based international aviation standard; an auditing program tailored to the standard; a range of aviation safety training programs; and a global safety data analysis program.
The 400th BARS audit was undertaken on Airfast Indonesia, which is contracted by mining companies to provide aviation services.
The managing director for Flight Safety Foundation’s BARS Program David Anderson said the audit program was “perfectly suited as a tool for oversight of contracted aviation operations”.
“The contracting company gets access to consistently high-quality, independently reviewed audits,” Anderson said in a statement.
“For the operator, the BARS Program provides execution of their audit by highly experienced aviation auditors and evaluation against a worldwide industry developed aviation standard.
“The need for a truly independent level of oversight of the aviation provider enables the contracting company clear visibility of the operators’ level of conformance to the BAR Standard.”
It was Airfast’s fourth BARS audit and the company has achieved gold status for maintaining continuous registration over the past four years.
“We are proud of our continued participation in the BARS Program,” Airfast general manager Arya Sidharta said.
“It has contributed to a great many improvements to our operational standards, and the Gold level status we have achieved is very much appreciated by our customers.”
In 2014, the AusIMM – The Minerals Institute recognised Flight Safety Foundation’s BARS Program with a mining safety award, noting it had raised the level of minimum standards for charter aircraft operations worldwide.
Flight Safety Foundation, which is headquartered in the US state of Virginia, said the BARS program was active in 30 countries, with about 140 operators having been audited over the past five years.
