L&A's Safety Specialist explore:
Safety from the Perspective of Gen Z
Author: Yovesh Naidoo
“ Safety is not just a rule or requirement but a default attitude.”
The current technological climate is constantly innovating the fabric of innovation itself, with our youth, especially Gen Z, at the core of it all. We aren’t just passengers of the industry, seated among you; we may be upcoming pioneers of breakthroughs within it. Growing up alongside artificial intelligence, automation, and rapid technological change, we see Safety through a very different lens than previous generations. In celebrating Youth Day, it’s time to explore the evolution of Aviation Safety Culture through our eyes and how our values, digital fluency, and bold ideas can reshape the skies.
This article discusses the role of Gen Z in safety advancement and the creation of a culture where safety exceeds the bounds and becomes an intrinsic, almost subconscious part of Safety Protocols. For contextualisation, it’s important to rewind and understand how Safety Culture has evolved. For much of the 20th century, safety was often treated as a background function, important but not fully integrated into everyday operations. Safety Departments were divided into two sections: Flight Operations and Employee Health & Safety. In the early 2000s, Aviation Safety began a major transformation.
At this point, the world saw an unprecedented boom in technological advancement. Most importantly, the refinement and widespread use of the internet, broadband and the rapid development of mobile devices and computers. Along with this, the world was beginning to welcome a new generation into the workforce. This generation, famously known as Millennials (generally considered as people born between 1981 – 1996), walked into a world where Safety Culture in Aviation was actively changing and the way they interacted with the world. The spread of information was much easier due to the Internet.
Millennials walked into a world ready for change...
Millennials harnessed the power of the internet and started creating online forums where they could share information of all sorts. In the Aviation Industry specifically, this translated to a new way of delivering information surrounding aviation education, safety and a myriad of other related topics, which served to open up the industry like never before. Brink Bester, who served in the South African Air Force between 2004 – 2018, a Millennial, actively remembers using YouTube videos to dive deeper into accident investigation. He recalls his seniors being impressed by his generation’s use of modern technology and social media for the means of promoting and enhancing Safety Culture.
Millennials walked into a world ready for change; the world no longer wanted to hold onto the Aviation Culture of the previous century. In this sense, Millennials pioneered the age of mental health awareness, information availability and the reduction of fear of reporting or admitting to mistakes. This, along with the introduction of ICAO 9859 and Safety Management Systems (SMS), significantly increased the state of safety in the aviation industry.
In 2006, the shift to safety integration as opposed to background functionality within aviation operations truly began when the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) introduced Document 9859, the first edition of the Safety Management Manual and philosophy. This milestone provided countries with the tools to build a strong regulatory framework and implement Safety Management Systems (SMS). As aviation expert Patrick Macfarlane, from the Baby Boomer Generation, states:
“SMS marked a shift from reacting to accidents to proactively managing risks, by embedding safety into every layer of an organisation and introducing consistent processes for identifying hazards and reducing accidents, SMS laid the groundwork for a truly Proactive Safety Culture.”
As the 2000s came to an end, the rise of social media was seen. This further demystified the Aviation Industry as Millennials were the first to use YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. Influencers like Mentour Pilot, Captain Joe, and others opened conversations around Safety, CRM, mental health, and mistakes, topics once confined to classroom briefings. These platforms allowed for storytelling and real-life reflections that humanised pilots and normalised discussions around incidents and safety learning. Social media helped build community and de-stigmatise the fear of reporting or admitting to errors.
Why was it easier to instil safety awareness and culture into the minds of millennials beyond the introduction of new technologies and the internet?
Laurie Moore, Litson and Associates’ CEO, states that it has to do with a psychological topic called ‘formative years’. What does Laurie mean by this?
Let’s take a look at a brief definition and an applied example within the aviation industry. The formative years in psychology refer to an early stage of development when foundational aspects of a person’s personality, behaviour, emotional patterns, and ways of thinking are shaped. During this period, individuals are highly impressionable, and their experiences play a critical role in influencing how they perceive the world, relate to others, and respond to future situations. It is a time when core values, habits, and mental frameworks begin to take root. In the context of Safety Culture in Aviation, Millennials and Gen Z walked into a commercial aviation industry where SMS implementation was mandatory. In their formative years in commercial aviation, the importance of Safety Culture creates a hard-wired “prejudice”, compared to generations before them, stated by Laurie. This means instinctively prioritising safety in every decision, action, and mindset, even before it’s consciously considered. It reflects a deeply embedded culture where safety is not just a rule or requirement but a default attitude.
Due to the continuous development of SMS throughout the late 2000s and 2010s, it is clear to see that Gen Z is more strongly geared towards Safety Culture than even Millennials, especially those born in the early to mid-1980s. Fast Forwarding to the 2020’s Generation Z is being handed the torch as not only the newest generation to enter the workforce, but we’ve also experienced a significant boom in technology, comparable to that seen in the early 2000s. The most notable of these new technological advancements is AI, Artificial Intelligence. AI is to us what social media was to Millennials. However, it is too early to see the use of AI in Aviation Safety Culture.
Gen Z's POV
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Gen Z utilising the content generated by Millennials on YouTube and other social media platforms? Gen Z had role models who took safety seriously, videos explaining accident investigations, glorification of safety culture, good decision making and focusing on continuous learning. The flipside of this is that, being constantly exposed to the world around them, with information regarding every accident/incident available at the click of a button, Gen Z may be the generation that is most afraid, anxious, paranoid and potentially misled – even when we shouldn’t be. In order to best leverage the plethora of information at our fingertips, a balance between facts, conjectures, conspiracies and outright fantasies needs to be established. Gen Z has the unique responsibility to ensure that responsibility takes precedence over virality, as accuracy is vital when dealing with safety topics.
There is also the possibility of creators and influencers with alternative opinions that may negatively impact today’s youth. How can we prevent the spread of misinformation and opinions that contradict the modern Aviation Safety Culture? Civil Aviation Authorities should increasingly focus on ensuring that today’s youth are adequately prepared for the commercial side of the aviation industry. Such programmes are not mandatory at this stage. Laurie Moore has pointed out that in the past, Airmanship itself was a subject that was heavily emphasised; he is of the opinion that you don’t see much emphasis on it in the Industry, at present. I believe that the inclusion of more formal exposure to SMS, Safety Culture and Airmanship during training will be far more beneficial to the current and future generations of aviation professionals instead of waiting to introduce them at specific career points, such as when a pilot gets their commercial license, as their training essentially constitutes their ‘formative years’ in the industry.
A New Dawn...
How do I see the near future? I see Gen Z being the most technologically equipped generation, heavily focused on Safety Culture. New technologies can enable Gen Z to create educational safety content with high-quality visuals or scripts, automate trend spotting in Safety reports or logs, and debrief flight data faster and more intelligently. The potential is to use these platforms to reach future pilots and promote a stronger Safety mindset. A tip for standing out as a youth is to be humble, be proactive, and document your growth (safely and ethically). Whether you’re in a Cessna 172 or a Level D sim, your voice matters in shaping the trajectory of tomorrow. We’re not just reacting to a changing world; we are change personified. My final thought is that Millennials made safety social; Gen Z can make it smarter.
About the Author:
Yovesh Naidoo is Litson and Associates’ Aviation Data Analyst, and he holds a Pilot’s license. Yovesh’s field of interest includes Aviation Data Technology, specifically Artificial Intelligence. He was invited to share his point of view on the subject as a young Aviation Professional and a member of Gen Z.