LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --
Keeping risk management at the forefront of all planned
activities is key to staying safe anytime, any place. Last year, Little Rock
Air Force Base personnel experienced 264 off-duty safety incidents and 132
on-duty safety incidents regarding personnel.
Risk management is a decision-making process used to
identify potential risks, how to avoid them and ensuring past mishaps don’t re-occur
in the future.
“It’s important to clearly identify these indicators or risk
factors because we don’t want anyone to get hurt,” said Christopher Gill, 19th
Airlift Wing Safety aviation maintenance specialist.
For any base event, risk management forms are filled out and
routed through the 19th Airlift Wing Safety shop. This process identifies
potential risk areas, and describes the mitigation action taken to ensure all
events run smoothly; with a low-risk of potential incidents.
“We do an inspection before events to make sure that
everything listed on the risk management form is clearly identified and taken
care of,” said Gill. “Then, if we see anything that may be a potential risk, we
work with the team putting on the event to mitigate it.”
Risk management in the maintenance community is primarily
avoided by implementing the use of technical orders. However, anything outside
of maintenance usually doesn’t have a T.O. to explain how to complete a
particular task safely.
On base, safety officials step into the work areas weekly to
conduct safety inspections; most of which are at random. Most mishaps are
preventable and follow safety precautions.
“We probably do two-to-three spot inspections a day,” said
Gill. “I want to observe folks being normal. Anytime that we’re out and about,
our job is to identify things that we see and prevent folks from getting hurt.
We are here to help.”
Having a plan can help avoid unnecessary risks. Always take
a moment to stop and think what the safest way to accomplish a task is.
“What we’re trying to
do is get folks to realize and be more cognizant of risks at work and at home,”
Gill said. “That way people can carry
that knowledge to their house where there are no T.O.s or directives that tell
you how to get home safe after the Super Bowl party or clean the gutters.”