NBAA-BACE to Honor Business Aviation Safety Excellence on Horizon Stage on October 20

The National Business Aviation Association will hold its annual Safety Awards Ceremony on the Horizon Stage at the NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) from 10:30 to 11:00 a.m. on October 20, immediately following the convention's opening session, The Launch. Pilot, flight instructor, philanthropist and influencer Stephanie Goetz, president and pilot of The Pink Jet, will host the ceremony.

More than 100 companies and flight departments, along with hundreds of operators and other industry personnel, are being recognized for accident-free flying. The categories include Commercial Business Flying awards for 14 companies with 789,268 cumulative hours; Corporate Business Flying awards for 141 companies with 6,601,059 cumulative hours; Maintenance Department Safety awards for 175 companies; Pilot Safety Awards for 305 pilots with 1,974,004 cumulative hours; Scheduler/Licensed Dispatcher Safety awards for 83 recipients; Support Services Safety awards for 252 recipients; and Avionics/Maintenance Technician Safety awards for 175 recipients.

NBAA Interim COO Dan Hubbard said the reenvisioned awards event would take place on the show's largest stage on the exhibit floor at the start of convention week, and that the show would also feature a lineup of safety-focused events and an exhibit hall showcasing safety technology. The NBAA Flying Safety Awards program was launched in 1953 by NBAA's Board of Directors to promote a culture of safety in business aviation operations, and for more than 70 years it has recognized member companies for exceptional achievement in maintaining safe flying operations.

Industry-wide safety recognition programs like this one give operators, maintenance departments, pilots and support staff a shared benchmark for accident-free performance, measured here in cumulative flight hours across seven distinct categories. Placing the ceremony on the exhibit floor's largest stage, right after the convention's opening session, signals an effort to put safety achievement in front of the widest possible NBAA-BACE audience rather than treating it as a side event.

The breadth of categories — from commercial and corporate flying to maintenance, dispatch and avionics technicians — reflects how business aviation safety culture depends on more than just pilots in the cockpit. How NBAA structures these categories and tallies hours each year offers a running record that participants and the wider industry can watch for as the program continues past its seventh decade.