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

Why Talk About "Aviation Safety?"

The United States' National Airspace System (NAS) handled between 54 million and 56 million takeoffs and landings in calendar year 2024 (January 1 to December 31). Handling such air traffic volume safely is in the interest of everyone, even for those who do not fly.

Aviation safety refers to measures, practices, and systems designed to minimize risks and prevent harm in air travel and aircraft operations. Aviation safety considers all types of flights, including:

• commercial,
• private, or 
• military operations.

Purpose of Non-Punitive Reporting Policies in Aviation SMS Programs

Dedicated, hard-working safety managers drive the setup of airline and airports' aviation safety management systems (SMS).

These safety managers are often left to decipher ambiguous requirements that are open to multiple interpretations. This comes into play, especially when upper management wants to "pencil-whip" an aviation SMS and merely check the boxes.

What Is an Emergency Response Plan

An emergency response plan is a manual that companies use to address many different types of emergencies.

The manuals include:

• Who to contact;
• How to act; and
• Resources to use.

The priorities for any ERP are, in this order:

Plans and Challenges of Implementation

Aviation safety management systems (SMS) implementation takes a long time to fully mature, usually three to five years if you are lucky.

Once there, your SMS will continually be tweaked and updated, which of course requires further implementation and monitoring.

When Should I Review Our SMS Manual?

It's very important to review SMS Manuals.

The most common audit finding is that the operator is not conducting operations as stated in their SMS manual.

Furthermore, your manual is only as useful as the information it contains. If the information is out of date, employees will lose trust in it. This undermines the safety culture you've worked to build.

4 Tips to Sell SMS to Top Management

ICAO and civil aviation authorities require SMS for many organizations. Even so, it's important to have buy-in from top management to make your SMS effective.

Lack of top management support remains among the top reasons an aviation SMS may fail.

Here are four, common-sense tips to help you earn top management support.

Why Create an Aviation SMS Manual?

ICAO 9859 calls for aviation organizations to document their SMS. This can be a simple document referencing the policies and procedures or a detailed manual.

If you run a small operation, or many processes are already in place, a simple document might be all you need.

Most organizations will need a detailed manual. An SMS manual shares much in common with your quality manual if you conveniently have one.

Safety Managers Can Only Manage Hazards That Are Reported

Healthy aviation safety management systems (SMS) rely upon hazard reporting to reduce operational risk. High-performing safety reporting cultures receive approximately one report for every ten employees each month.

Why Review Safety Policy & Objectives in Aviation SMS Programs?

Aviation safety managers share many common traits, including:

• detail oriented;
• hard driven;

Why Safety Management Gets Safety Objectives Wrong

Somewhat surprisingly, in aviation safety management systems (SMS), safety objectives are often quite misunderstood. Experienced safety management may have a slightly misguided understanding of safety objectives.

New safety management will simply ask, what are safety objectives?