Managing Aviation Safety

Jay Hopkins

Monday, November 07, 2011 at 07:53 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Traditional aviation safety approaches were reactive, inconsistent, and often undermined by a lack of management involvement, leading to preventable accidents and "procedure slip."
Safety Management Systems (SMS) represent a proactive, organizational-level shift in safety, designed to identify and mitigate hazards before they lead to adverse events, enhancing overall operational effectiveness.
An SMS is built upon four core components: a clear Safety Policy, rigorous Safety Risk Management, continuous Safety Assurance, and active Safety Promotion to cultivate a pervasive safety culture.
SMS is scalable for organizations of any size and requires active, visible commitment from senior management to truly integrate safety principles into all processes and decisions.

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(November 2011) “Safety management system” — the very name sounds intimidating. I have to admit that I was not initially excited about the idea of a safety management system. I figured it was just another complicated set of rules, procedures and acronyms that would require a lot of time while not really accomplishing anything significant. My attitude changed earlier this year when I had an opportunity to attend a two-day workshop on safety management systems at the annual conference of the International Association of Missionary Aviation (iamanet.org).

Safety has always been an issue for missionary aviation, and the association is embracing safety management systems as a way to reduce accidents and enhance its members’ overall operating effectiveness.