Anchoring Our Safety, Together
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Anchoring Our Safety, Together 04 The RSAF at NDP 2020: 18 Trust Your Radar Stronger Together 22 Motor Transport Safety: A Journey, Not an Outcome JUL 2020 ISSUE 104 JUL 2020 1 CONTENTS The RSAF at NDP 2020: 04 Stronger Together Trust Your Radar 04 Motor Transport Safety: 22 A Journey, Not an Outcome Safety Activities 18 29 30 4 Pics 1 WORD Crossword Puzzle 22 31 FOCUS magazine is available on these sites: EDITORIAL BOARD Editor Internet: Chairman MAJ Wong Minghua, Donald www.mindef.gov.sg/focusmag COL Linus Tan Jin Kiat Assistant Editors Intranet: Members ME3 Tan Tee Hoo https://portal.mis.defence.gov.sg/rsaf/afi SLTC Peter Ho Wing Leong PTE Gai Cherng Hoe LTC Sim Poh Joo REC Brian Lie ME6 Amos Yap Keng Yong MAJ Ashley Jude Peterson Design MAJ (DR) Aaron Tiong Apache Art Enterprise MS Audrey Siah Yushu MS Karen Pek FOCUS is published by Air Force Inspectorate (AFI), HQ RSAF, for accident prevention purposes. Use of information contained herein for purposes other than accident prevention, requires prior authorisation from AFI. The content of FOCUS is of an informative nature and should not be considered as directive or regulatory unless so stated. The opinions and views in this magazine are those expressed by the writers and do not reflect the official views of the RSAF. The contents should not be discussed with the press or anyone outside the armed services establishment. 2 FOCUS - ISSUE 104 Foreword From Former Head Air Force Inspectorate This year has been a challenging one for In the third article, ME5 Sim from 705 SQN everyone all over the world. The global COVID-19 shared his views on the importance of Motor pandemic has impacted our lives one way or Transport (MT) Safety and how he leads his another, with many countries going into squadron through a series of collective efforts lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus. and initiatives in achieving zero MT accidents. Singapore also implemented the circuit breaker He takes the safety of everyone under his measures last quarter from April to June, command very seriously and strongly believes before opening up in gradual phases into that zero accident is an achievable goal. With the “New Normal”. Despite the challenging the recent rise of MT accidents, he also shared circumstances, the RSAF continued to maintain his tips on how to be safe on the road. our 24/7 operational readiness through the implementation of cohorting and strict safe- I believe we can learn a lot from these three distancing measures. This is a testament to our personal stories as they give us insights on strength and determination we all have. what we must do to ensure safe operations, especially in this uncertain and ever-evolving In this issue of FOCUS, we begin with five COVID-19 pandemic. of our RSAF servicemen coming together to share with us their respective involvements and Lastly, this foreword marks my final contribution preparations for this year’s NDP 2020. With as Head Air Force Inspectorate. Throughout my the newfound challenges arising from the career in the RSAF, I had seen the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic, these servicemen also RSAF and slowly laid the foundations to build shared on how they managed these challenges the strong safety culture of what we have here to make this NDP a safe and successful one. today. I am confident that the RSAF’s safety culture will continue to strengthen in the years to Following this, the second article shares an come, and that we will remain true to our incident experienced by two of our Air Warfare safety motto “Mission Success, Safety Always”. Officers (C3) from 203 SQN. With a potential I wish everyone in the RSAF many safe flying airprox on their hands, CPT Seah and CPT Chan years ahead! remained calm and collected in this stressful situation and showed strong fundamentals and Dallas signing off. team excellence in ensuring that the potential airprox was avoided during a NDP 2019 COL Yew Heng Siong rehearsal in our tight local airspace. Former Head Air Force Inspectorate JUL 2020 3 ARTICLE The RSAF at NDP 2020: Stronger Together CPT Edwin Tan CPT Adam Eng MAJ Wong Hui Leong Will 127 SQN 142 SQN AFI ME2 Kenn Lai MAJ Billy Yew 127 SQN 163 SQN 9 August has always been a day of pride We hear from five of our RSAF personnel and joy for all Singaporeans young and old who are in one way or another involved in to come together and celebrate our National this year’s NDP in their respective capacities. day. This year’s National Day Parade (NDP) We learn more about their roles and duties in is one of the most unique and challenging this year’s NDP, and understand the different as our nation strives to resume our lives safety challenges they face in the lead up to in the new normal after going through a the actual day parade. We also find out how tough circuit breaker period caused by the they are managing their training and keeping ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. themselves safe in this COVID-19 pandemic. 4 FOCUS - ISSUE 104 ARTICLE of the most challenging objectives in Flying our Flag High the entire NDP to achieve, and that CPT Edwin Tan, 127 SQN is to make sure that the state flag arrives at the parade on a specific and I am CPT Edwin Tan from 127 SQN precise Time On Target (TOT). For us, and I am the co-pilot of the lead arriving too early or too late would CH-47SD aircraft for the State Flag have a very visible impact to all the Flypast and also the NDP overall spectators on the ground, especially coordinator (NDP OIC) for the when they are singing the national helicopter formation. This is my anthem with gusto as the flag flies second time participating in the past them. Apart from the flying NDP State Flag Flypast since my first aspect, our squadron’s role on the NDP flying experience five years ago ground is to ensure the preparation during SG50 when we celebrated and condition of the state flags and Singapore’s Golden Jubilee. equipment are in tip-top condition before every flight. For 127 SQN, NDP is an annual commitment as our squadron’s role This year, there is an additional is to fly the state flag through the segment on top of our usual Padang parade grounds, as part of the state flag flypast. This segment is Presidential Salute. We have one called “Fly Our Flag” (FOF), and it JUL 2020 5 ARTICLE involves us flying the Singapore flag through the heartlands, with the intent of bringing the flag closer to all Singaporeans at home during this COVID-19 pandemic. The FOF segment will divide our flights into the Eastern and Western routes. For the Eastern route, some of the areas that we will be flying through are Bedok, Pasir Ris and Tampines, while for the Western route, we would be flying through Jurong West, Bukit Batok and Choa Chu Kang. With the FOF segment specially included into this year’s NDP 2020, we had to dwell deeper into our flight route planning and emergency handling contingencies, as some portions of the flight routes are not in our typical training areas. During the planning stages, we ensured that the flight routes were mostly clear of populace and fulfilled the minimum lateral and vertical clearances from obstacles along the flight path, in accordance with the relevant military and Air Navigation orders. A more in-depth planning of emergency handling contingencies along our flight routes was also carried out, where we conducted ground and air recces to identify potential Forced Landing Areas (FLAs). Prior to the conduct of the recces, we leveraged on technologies such as using Google Earth to measure the size of potential FLAs to determine whether our aircraft could fit in them. Ground and air recces were later carried out to assess the suitability of these FLAs, and determine if there were any obstacles which would require us to make adjustments to our flight routes. 6 FOCUS - ISSUE 104 ARTICLE Training Safely during Ensuring Safety as a COVID-19 Top Priority The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and safe Part of my job as the NDP OIC is to ensure that distancing measures have also presented the overall flight execution is carried out safely. us with a multitude of challenges that This is achieved through detailed planning we need to overcome to ensure our and ensuring safety limits and procedures flypast will be a safe and successful one. are not breached. At times, there may be Firstly, the number of rehearsals were requests by external agencies to board our reduced due to the ongoing COVID-19. aircraft or sudden requests for us to fly Moreover, our squadron has been cohorted certain flight profiles which I would have to into two teams, and we operate concurrently make the assessment if it is safe and in two separate locations. achievable for us to do so. For example, I regularly receive requests for passengers To ensure that we are prepared and ready to come on board our CH-47SD aircraft for the demanding challenges in-flight, during our NDP rehearsals and on the we have made use of the simulators to actual day flights. However, there are ensure that we are familiar with the profiles. safety considerations that we need to We also regularly conduct our briefings and observe to ensure the overall safety and Table Top Exercise (TTX) sessions via video conduct of the mission.