The Brazilian Commercial Aviation Safety Team, known as BCAST, is a dedicated committee made up of representatives from civil aviation service providers and various organizations across Brazil. Its main goal is to propose and promote improvements in commercial aviation safety. The leadership of BCAST includes a president and vice president who are selected from the country’s airline sector. Supporting its efforts, the Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC), Brazil’s civil aviation authority, acts as the secretariat for BCAST.
Since its inception in 2016, BCAST has followed a model inspired by the successful U.S. Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST). Similar to CAST, BCAST focuses on generating safety enhancements that are shared with the aviation industry. The team has established several working groups that concentrate on specific areas, including controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), loss of control-inflight (LOC-I), mid-air collisions (MAC), runway excursions (RE), COVID-19 data sharing, and operational training.
BCAST holds meetings four times a year to discuss ongoing initiatives and safety strategies. Additionally, the team is planning an annual InfoShare event, which takes cues from the semi-annual Aviation Safety InfoShare held in the U.S. Collaboration is also key for BCAST, as it works closely with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Regional Aviation Safety Group-Pan America (RASG-PA) and the associated Pan American Regional Aviation Safety Team (PA-RAST). This cooperative approach highlights the importance of teamwork in enhancing aviation safety.
