Guardian Flight names Steve Kelly safety director
Guardian Flight Inc. has appointed Steve Kelly as its new Director of Safety
Guardian Flight Inc. has appointed Steve Kelly as its new Director of Safety. As a member of the Executive Management Team, Kelly reports to Fred Buttrell, Guardian Flight President and President and CEO of Air Medical Group Holdings (AMGH), which is Guardian Flight's parent company.
Kelly is based in the company's South Jordan, Utah, facility. He is responsible for the safety and safe operations of all of Guardian Flight's more than 50 bases serving 15 states including Alaska and Hawaii.
"In our company our most important goal is to remain safe every minute of every day," says Buttrell. "To accomplish this, Steve is leading our safety culture and demonstrating through our actions that Guardian Flight embraces safety first."
As Director of Safety, Kelly leads the company's Safety Advisory Board, which consists of executive and senior management representatives from the company's safety, aviation, rotor-wing and fixed-wing operations, maintenance and clinical operations, as well as human resources, education, and subject matter experts from throughout the organization.
Kelly joined the air ambulance industry as an IFR line pilot for STAT MedEvac in the Greater Pittsburgh area. He holds an airline transport pilot (ATP) rating in helicopters and airframe and powerplant (A&P) ratings and is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force in operations and maintenance. He holds a bachelor’s degree in science swell as degrees in aviation technology and small business management.
Kelly has worked in operations, training, and safety for Metro Aviation and STAT MedEvac. He has held positions as an incident review board member, safety officer, travelled as an aviation safety guest speaker and served as pilot base lead and instructor pilot. Additionally, he has worked with the Dartmouth-Hitchcock IFR Helicopter Program where he collaborated with regional aviation management to promote operational standardization and safety through line-oriented flight training for pilots and medical-crew members.