The terms of reference required the Committee to take account of safety when formulating its proposals. As a starting point the Committee had the report of a Special Review (published in 1968) entitled “The Safety Performance of United Kingdom airline operators”.

With this in mind, Edwards formulated as part of the long-term objectives of civil aviation policy that safety should be “equal to the best in the world” (paragraph 1053) —but although a great deal of attention was given to air safety, the Committee admitted that it had “not felt competent to consider the technical aspects of safety in depth” (paragraph 840).