Enhancing Aviation Safety: Expert Insights, Tips, and Updates from SMS-Pro

The Obvious Reasons

We are generally aware of the more straightforward indicators of unhealthy aviation safety management systems (SMS).

Things like:

The Real Purpose of Gap Analysis

A true aviation SMS implementation takes years and a lot of hard work to effect lasting change. SMS implementations can take considerably longer due to:

• Poor gap analyses;
• Ineffective procedures;
• Unstable safety management teams;

Safety Auditors Are a Rare Breed of Personality Traits

Good aviation safety auditors play a vital role in the ability of an aviation safety management system (SMS) to identify

• substandard safety performance; and
• ways in which the SMS can improve.

All Four Pillars Are Not Created Equal

Aviation safety professionals know that the four pillars of safety management systems are the foundational idea upon which aviation safety management systems (SMS) are based.

1. Safety Policy – Defines methods, procedures, and organizational structure
2. Safety Risk Management – Looks at the adequacy of, and determines the need for, risk controls, and identifies new hazards
3. Safety Assurance – Evaluates the effectiveness of implemented strategies
4. Safety Promotion – Aimed at safety training and awareness

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.

A Hot Word in Aviation SMS?

As airlines and the aviation industry, in general, continue to eclipse safety records year by year, a nagging question begins to crop up with increasing vigor:

What Are Lagging Indicators in Aviation SMS?

Lagging indicators are an essential element of system performance monitoring in aviation safety management systems (SMS). Safety professionals and accountable executives should become familiar with lagging indicators as these managers are responsible for

A Reporting Culture Is a Just Culture

Workers’ participation in aviation safety management systems (SMS) comes down to one word: reporting.

When workers are reporting, it demonstrates three things:

How to Prove Your Aviation SMS Is Working

Proving to stakeholders that your aviation safety management system is working is simply a matter of showing that the primary goal of SMS is being achieved - namely, that:

• Operational environment is safer; and

What Is SMS Shortfall Analysis?

In every aviation safety management system (SMS), the accountable executive is responsible for ensuring the SMS is properly implemented and working across the entire organization. In order to fulfill this responsibility,