On 26 November 2025, the ATSB was informed that New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) was undertaking a range of measures to enhance aviation safety across all aspects of aviation use and management.
To address the previous gap where operating procedures referred to but did not define ‘essential personnel’ or specify their roles and responsibilities during aerial work, the NPWS is implementing several key measures as part of its operational risk management. These measures are:
- Launched an NPWS Aviation Safety Strategy 2025-2027 in February 2025. The strategy identifies key reform objectives including:
- enhancing safety practices providing assurance in NPWS aviation activities
- reducing the operational and organisational risk profile
- delivering standardised and consistent aviation practices
- enabling third party aviation contractors and suppliers to work within the NPWS aviation safety management system (SMS).
- The establishment of a revised Aviation Safety Policy Statement and Objectives in March 2025, which states that NPWS will ensure that only the people required for an operation are on the aircraft and that those people are appropriately qualified, equipped, resourced and briefed for the task being conducted.
- Developed a new aviation SMS to enhance aviation risk management, governance, capability and operations. The NPWS aviation SMS was developed with industry partners and incorporates all mandated elements of a Civil Aviation Safety Authority SMS and integrates safety and risk management across all aviation activities and operations.
- In direct response to defining essential personnel, NPWS is developing detailed task profiles for all aerial work activities that will be utilised by all operators conducting work for NPWS. These profiles will define the required crew composition for each task, ensuring that the roles and responsibilities of all personnel are clearly defined. The first of these task profiles will be released, along with the corresponding procedure and tools for use in the field, at the end of 2025.
- NPWS will also develop operational risk profiles linked to each task profile. These will identify and manage the specific risks associated with each aerial operation and assign responsibility for risk treatments to designated personnel.
- As part of operational risk management in the new aviation SMS, all personnel involved in aerial activities will be listed on an aviation plan and approved for the operation. Crew will participate in formal briefings and be accepted to board the aircraft by the pilot in command.
These steps will ensure that ‘essential personnel’ are not only defined, but their roles and responsibilities are embedded in operational planning, risk management, and safety assurance for all NPWS aerial work activities.
