Alaska air carrier operator and pilot safety practices and attitudes: a statewide survey.

INTRODUCTION: Aviation crashes are a leading cause of occupational fatalities in Alaska, with Alaskan pilots having nearly 100 times the fatality rate of U.S. workers overall. A survey was designed to study pilot and company practices and attitudes in order to develop intervention strategies that would reduce aviation fatalities. METHODS: Two surveys were administered: one of air carrier operators and one of active commercial pilots. Surveys from 153 air taxi and public-use operators were received at a 79% response rate. RESULTS: There are almost 2000 pilots employed in Alaska during peak season by air taxi operators and public agencies. Surveyed operators and pilots generally agreed that improved weather information and regional hazards training would be effective ways to prevent crashes. Operators were more in favor of operator financial incentives (p < 0.05) and better pre-employment hiring checks on pilots (p < 0.05) compared with pilots' survey responses. There were 48% of pilots of large operators and 73% of pilots of small operators who considered their jobs to be at least as safe as other jobs. CONCLUSIONS: The results of operator-pilot comparisons suggest that financial pressures on operators may influence their views on what measures would be effective in preventing crashes, and that Alaskan pilots underestimate their occupational fatality risk.

Scientific worker and licensed professional deaths in Alaska, 1990-2002.

OBJECTIVES: Between 1990-2002, 797 Alaskans died while working. After a scientific survey team member drowned, we examined the hazards of traumatic death to scientific and professional workers in Alaska. STUDY DESIGN: Surveillance and analysis methods for acute traumatic occupational injuries: The Alaska Occupational Injury Surveillance System (AOISS) uses direct investigation, jurisdictional agency reports, and death certificates to gather data for active surveillance on occupational injury deaths in Alaska. We searched AOISS for deaths which occurred while engaged in scientific or professional work. Commercial pilots, fishermen, loggers, taxi drivers and miners were excluded, as these have been previously studied. RESULTS: During 1990-2002, 85 scientific/professional worker deaths (including 2 suicides) occurred. Fish, game, and mountaineering guides accounted for 28 (33%) of the worker deaths, followed by biologists, who accounted for 11 (13%). Aircraft crashes accounted for 42 (49%) of all these deaths, followed by drownings, 12 (14%), and falls, 9 (11%). A seismologist was fatally mauled by a bear. Of the 14 hunting guide fatalities, 11 were the result of aircraft crashes, one was a suicide, one was a drowning, and one resulted from a motor vehicle crash. Of the 11 hunting guide fatalities, eight died in aircraft crashes, one drowned, one walked into an aircraft prop, and one sustained a fatal head injury in a fall. CONCLUSIONS: Scientific and professional workers in Alaska experienced a substantial number of fatalities from traumatic injury. Nearly half of these deaths occurred in aircraft crashes.