E77: LOSA Demystified: Who’s Sitting in Your Jumpseat?

What exactly is LOSA, and who is that pilot sitting in your jumpseat? In this episode of Engage, host First Officer Ryan Argenta sits down with Casey Songster, 737 First Officer and Vice Chair of the SMS Subcommittee within the Central Air Safety Committee (CASC), to break down the Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA) program. Casey explains how LOSA fits into Delta’s Safety Management System (SMS), what LOSA observers are actually looking for, and why the program is designed to identify operational risks—not evaluate individual pilots.  The conversation covers confidentiality, de-identification, observer selection, pilot participation, and how LOSA data helps both ALPA and the Company better understand threats, error chains, and opportunities for risk mitigation across the operation. If you’ve ever wondered who that person in your jumpseat is, what happens to the information collected during a LOSA observation, or how pilots contribute to safety programs behind the scenes, this episode is for you.