Aviation Safety Software Blog by SMS Pro

Who Is the FAA Safety Assurance System (SAS) Profile for?

Written by Tyler Britton | May 2, 2016 10:00:00 AM

The FAA SAS Profile for

As you may already know from our previous post, our FAA SAS Profile provides the collection of tools that aviation safety professionals need for assessing their certificates' safety assurance requirements.

Our SAS Profile tool can help:

  • Accountable Executives and Compliance officers of certificate holders;
  • FAA Inspectors; and
  • Aviation Consultants.

I'll discuss the ways each of these target user groups can benefit from using the SAS Profile tool.

Accountable Execs and Compliance officers of certificate holders (mainly smaller Part 135 and 145 operators) might not have adequate resources to hire a third-party company to manage their manuals to ensure SAS compliance. Even though the list of DCTs (tools) is freely available on the FAA's website, they are not clearly separated by certificate and peer group, requiring a significant effort from the end users to find DCTs relevant to the operation.

By creating an FAA SAS Profile for your company, you will only see the DCTs that apply to your certificate and peer group and will get automated emails every time FAA updates your tools. This would enable you to review the FAA's safety assurance requirements and make sure your operation is compliant.

FAA Safety Inspectors (ASIs) can create FAA SAS Profile for the companies they inspect so that the company has a clear list of DCTs available for review. This would allow the company to be proactive, and get ready for the safety inspection/audit. This setup benefits both ASI and the company, by saving time and streamlining communication as both parties know the requirements in advance.

Aviation Consultants working with their clients to help them get ready for FAA SAS audits should look into creating a SAS Profile for their clients. This would allow the consultant to have a clutter-free reference to the specific DCTs their client should comply with.

Only 5% of FAA SAS tools are relevant for a typical 145 operator, and 20-27% for a Part 135 operator.

While the FAA SAS Profile tool is ultimately helping the certificate holders better understand FAA SAS requirements and be better prepared for FAA SAS Audits, it can also benefit FAA Safety Inspectors and Aviation Consultants.

When a certificate holder knows their FAA SAS requirements and has quick, painless, efficient access to current tools relevant to their particular operation, it benefits all parties involved in the SAS compliance process.

Last updated April 2024.