PACDEFF 2026 – 20-21 October, 2026 Royal on the Park Hotel, Brisbane

PACDEFF 2026 will be held at Royal on the Park Hotel, Brisbane, over 20-21 October 2026

The conference will comprise of two days of presentations on CRM, NTS, Aviation Human Factors, and Aviation Psychology. Presentations will include keynote addresses on Day 1 and 2, and some optional workshops on Day 2.

Please also note that the call for speakers for 2026 is now open. Please feel free to email us with an overview of your presentation, or to submit a full abstract.

Registration for PACDEFF 2026 will open on 1st of April, 2026. Once registrations open, please select the Registration button on the right side of this page above, or via the ‘Registration Info’ tab on the Top Menu to take you to the Trybooking site which will walk you through the various options.

Registration Costs (AUD):

Early-bird rate (1 Apr-31 May) – $295

Standard rate (1 June-21 Oct) – $365

Speaker Rate – Free

Single Day Rate – $190

Accommodation $239/nt

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Conference Networking Opportunities

To facilitate opportunities for networking and the exchange of ideas outside the conference proper, two informal social events are planned for 2026. These include a free welcome drinks session at the hotel and a conference dinner to be held at the Royal.

Please note the welcome event for 2026 will once again be sponsored by Southpac Aerospace.

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PACDEFF is one of the least expensive conferences of its type in the world. This is only possible because of the generous support of our sponsors. PACDEFF would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support for the 2026 conference and we hope that you will continue to support them.

We always appreciate the amazing contribution our sponsors make to flight safety and look forward to sharing the 2026 sponsors as they come on board.

Professor Sidney Dekker

Sidney Dekker (PhD Ohio State University, USA, 1996) is Professor in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, and Director of the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Sidney has lived and worked in seven countries across four continents. He coined the terms ‘Safety Differently’ and ‘Restorative Just Culture’ in the 2010s, which have since turned into global movements for change. They encourage organisations to declutter their bureaucracy and enhance the capacities in people and processes that make things go well—and to offer compassion, restoration and learning when they don’t. His work has inspired generations of professionals and consultants globally. Many today will recognise Sidney’s ideas and concepts in for example ‘HOP,’ ‘Learning Teams,’ the ‘New View,’ and more. 

An avid piano player and pilot who learned to fly at age 14, he has been flying the Boeing 737 for an airline on the side. 

He is a trained mediator and Crisis Chaplain.

Sidney is prolific and bestselling author of, most recently: Safety Theatre; Ten Virtues of a Positive Safety Culture; Random Noise; Stop Blaming; Foundations of Safety Science; The Safety Anarchist; The End of Heaven; Just Culture; Safety Differently; The Field Guide to Understanding ‘Human Error’; Second Victim; Drift into Failure; Patient Safety; Compliance Capitalism; and Do Safety Differently. 

He has co-directed the documentaries ‘Safety Differently,’ ‘Just Culture,’ ’The Complexity of Failure,’ and ‘Doing Safety Differently.’ 

His work has well over 21,000 citations and an h-index of 64. 

Stanford has ranked Sidney among the world’s top 1% most influential scientists since Newton. More at sidneydekker.com

Angela Garvey

Angela Garvey is the founder of Navigating Aviation, a specialist aviation counselling and support consultancy, and an aviation-specific employee assistance service dedicated to improving mental wellness and workplace culture across Australia’s aviation sector.

Following a tragic aviation accident that claimed five lives within her own business, and after more than a decade navigating a career in aviation, Angela transformed her lived experience into purpose, building the relatable aviation support system she once searched for but couldn’t find. She established Navigating Aviation to strengthen psychosocial safety across the industry, offering confidential counselling, leadership training, bespoke aviation EAPs, and industry-specific wellbeing programs.

Supported by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts through the Women Working in Aviation initiative, Angela launched the world’s first General Aviation Culture and Wellbeing Survey, with the final report released in 2025. The findings now underpin her tailored programs that strengthen the foundation of the industry, including Mental Health First Aid training, psychosocial hazard management, and leadership development initiatives designed to support and retain aviation professionals.

In 2024, Angela became the first female pilot to fly with the Freedom Formation Airshow Display Team at the Pacific Airshow Gold Coast and is set to return in 2026. Her leadership and contribution to aviation were recognised with two national honours – Female Aviation Leader of the Year and the overall Excellence Award at the Australian Aviation Awards.

Angela’s journey and advocacy continue to inspire cultural change across the industry, demonstrating that decency, integrity, and authentic, values-based leadership are key to building safer, more connected workplaces.

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Professor Graham Braithwaite

Graham holds a BSc (Hons) in Transport Management and Planning and a PhD in Aviation Safety Management from Loughborough University. From 1997 to 2003, he taught Aviation Safety and Human Factors at the University of New South Wales in Australia and was involved in a range of research projects covering ATC, cabin safety, rescue and firefighting and engineering human factors.

Graham joined Cranfield University in 2003 as the Director of the Safety and Accident Investigation Centre where he launched new multimodal accident investigation courses in 2004 and the world’s first MSc for aircraft accident investigators in 2005. He became Director of Transport Systems in 2014 where he led on the £67M Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre. In 2024, he was appointed as Director of Aerospace and Aviation.

In 2011, Graham led the University’s successful bid for a Queen’s Anniversary Prize. This is the highest honour that can be given to a UK academic institution and was awarded for Cranfield’s “world-leading work in aviation safety through research and teaching in air accident investigation.” In 2012, he was given the honour ‘Distinguished Alumni’ of Loughborough University and in 2013 he was able to collect the Flight Safety Foundation’s Richard Teller Crane Founders Award on behalf of Cranfield University for its sustained corporate leadership in aviation safety. 

In 2019, Graham led the University’s successful bid for its sixth Queen’s Anniversary Prize – for the University’s flying classrooms and laboratories.

Captain Angela de Beaufort

Angela de Beaufort has been a commercial pilot for over 25 years and a captain since 2017. She has been a Crew Resource Management (CRM) trainer since 2004 and deepened her knowledge of human factors through her psychology studies, graduating with a master’s degree in 2013. Since 2022, she has also been head of the Human Factors Academy at Lufthansa Aviation Training GmbH. Angela de Beaufort has been giving lectures, designing seminars and workshops, and training various organizations, including high-reliability organizations such as the German Armed Forces, fire departments, and medical professionals, in safe, efficient, and resilient working methods in accordance with CRM principles for many years