SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Stages of Safety Events with FAA vs. Others

Regulatory oversight agencies in various countries/regions possess inconsistent definitions for:

• hazards,
• risks, and
• the stages of safety events.

Make no mistake, it’s extremely important how these safety elements are defined and conceptualized. It will determine how you practice risk management and safety assurance activities.

If your definitions don’t quite align with your oversight agency’s definitions, a keen auditor will notice disparities in your risk management documentation. The implications are:

• Your entire hazard register does not appropriately identify “hazards”;
• All hazard analysis documentation will be slightly misguided; and
• Risk controls may be controlling the wrong elements.

FAA’s Safety Risk Management (SRM) Process and System Description Element

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) safety risk management (SRM) compliance requirement for System Description has one clear goal: establish the components of your operating environment’s

• systems,
• processes,
• procedures, and
• important safety elements.

Despite the fact that the goal is clear, system description is too often skimmed over by safety teams during their initial implementation phase of their aviation safety management systems (SMS). This is a mistake.

Why is this element of SRM often skimmed over?

FAA’s Safety Risk Management (SRM) Process and Hazard Identification Element

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) SRM compliance requirement for hazard identification controls every U.S. aviation service provider required to implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS). These SRM requirements indirectly affect these operators' safety culture and risk management processes whether they like it or not.

Disconnect in FAA Importance Stressed on Safety Promotion

A few elements of the Safety Promotion requirements need to be discussed before we jump in.

The Safety Risk Management and Safety Assurance pillars of SMS receive by far the most attention by aviation service providers and aviation oversight agencies. Lagging far behind them is Safety Policy.

FAA Part 5 Built around 4 Pillars of SMS

Federal Aviation Administration Part 5 requirements are modeled after the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). They set the standard upon which many oversight agencies around the globe model their own standards. In general, Part 5 requirements are specific enough to provide direction, but flexible enough to allow aviation SMS programs and airline SMS programs the ability to adapt to those requirements.

Safety Assurance Analysis of Data Overview

Analysis of Data is the third component in the FAA’s Part 5 Safety Assurance requirements. It is a natural response to the Data Acquisition process. Data analysis is a process. This means two things for you:

Purpose of Safety Performance Assessment in Safety Assurance Pillar

Safety performance assessment in FAA Part 5 compliance requirements plays a critical role in bridging the game between higher-level risk management process activities and day to day aviation SMS activities. More practically speaking, this component of safety assurance helps bridge the gap between the everyday hazard mitigation efforts, and large scale decision making and accountability for the overall direction of the safety management system.

What Is Safety Assurance for FAA

Safety Assurance is designed to ensure that airport SMS programs, airline SMS programs, and aviation service providers practice their safety program effectively. It is one of the Four Pillars of SMS. Safety assurance practices have strong overlaps with quality management. As aviation SMS programs are implemented, the Safety Assurance pillar will continually become more important.

Purpose of Continuous Improvement in Safety Assurance Pillar

Continuous Improvement in FAA Part 5 compliance (Part 5.75) is simply a requirement for correcting “deficiencies identified in the assessments conducted under [the Safety Performance Assessment] process.” (Part 5.75 documentation)

FAA’s SRM Risk Control Component – Defining Risk

The FAA’s SRM Risk Control component is the 5^th and final element in the Safety Risk Management process.

The Risk Control component is the phase in which you will bring hazards and hazards’ risks into an acceptable level of safety.

Creating effective risk controls is essential – messing up here means you wasted the analysis and assessment efforts done in previous phases.