Mercy Flights of Medford, Oregon has become the newest member of the Air Charter Safety Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports the highest safety standards for more than 310 aviation-focused businesses, charter and fractional operators. Additionally, the company will participate in the ACSF's third-party facilitation of the FAA's voluntary Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP).

CEO Sheila Clough says: “Our long-term strategic plan is designed to build on Mercy Flights' strengths and open doors to discover innovative ways in which we can serve as leaders and role models in our industry. Addressing safety through the auspices of the ACSF and its ASAP is one more extremely important milestone in that plan and our mission.”

In welcoming Mercy Flights to the ACSF membership, ACSF president Bryan Burns noted the rapidly increasing number of aviation-related companies joining the ACSF, and their rationale for doing so: “The increasing criticality of aviation safety is prompting greater and greater numbers of companies to seek out the optimal means of establishing solid safety standards and programmes in their organisations. We're very gratified to see that companies like Mercy Flights are opting to join the ACSF ranks, precisely because they know that what we provide is critical to their operation.”

The ACSF's Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) is a voluntary programme administered in conjunction with the FAA. It is designed to help operators identify, report and resolve potential safety issues without fear of reprisal from the FAA. (The FAA takes a non-punitive approach to ASAP-accepted reports.) The open, self-reporting initiative includes tracking and corrective action recommendations to help organisations enhance and improve their overall safety culture.

ACSF member companies can use ASAP as a stand-alone safety programme or as a key component of their safety management system (SMS).