SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

A Presentation By
Sergio Alvarez-Gracia
Ka Lee
Safia Bahas
Amal Hdayed
Safety
The state in which risks associated with aviation
activities, related to, or in direct support of the
operation of aircraft, are reduced and controlled to
an acceptable level (ICAO).
Safety Management Systems (SMS)

A systematic approach to managing safety,

including the necessary organizational structures,
accountabilities, policies and procedures (ICAO).
Why do we need SMS?

Operational failures in air transport lead to catastrophic

outcomes.
Safety is a dynamic characteristic of the aviation system
. Hence it is continuously mitigated.
Reliability of machines and computers vs reliability of
human beings.
Reactive to proactive.
Minimum requirements of a SMS

Identify safety hazards

Ensure that remedial action necessary to maintain an acceptable

level of safety is implemented.

Provides continuous monitoring and regular assessment of the

safety level achieved.

Aims to make continuous improvement to the overall level of safety

Benefits of SMS

It provides for more informed decision-making

Improves safety by reducing risk of accidents

Provides for better resource allocation that will result in increased

efficiencies and reduce costs

Strengthens corporate culture and demonstrate corporate due-diligence

Safety Culture and Accident
Causation
Ka Lee
Safety Culture

Source: Monteiro, 2016

Five major components
Informed Culture
To collects and investigates data, and distributes safety information to the
organisations staff to develop their knowledge of risks and hazards.

Learning culture
To ensure people understand the SMS processes at a personal level through
learning from the mistakes and make changes.

Flexible culture
To people who work in the field are capable of adapting the dynamic natural of
aviation industry, changing demands and new circumstances.

Just Culture
To encourage people to report any kind of mistakes or errors made by themselves
or others. It will not be penalised unless it was a major mistake.

Reporting Culture
To collect and analyse the data by specialists to prevent unsafe acts. The system
remain confidential to prevent people terrified for reporting.
Accident Causation
Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) Annual Safety Review 2015 indicated
the top factors for Field and Correspondence both Field and AARF is due to the
loss of control in flight/ ground an error due to human factors.

Source: AAIB 2015

The report also mentioned an increasing concern about the use of Unmanned
Air Vehicle (UAV) or drone.
Case Study
The berlingen mid-air collision in 2002 was one of the most fatal accidents in recent air
transport history. A collision between a Tupolev Tu-154 passenger jet and a Boeing 757 - 200
cargo jet. A total of 71 passengers and crews from both planes were killed. German Federal
Bureau of Air Accidents Investigation (BFU) have issued both cause and recommendation for
the accident.

The cause of the accident:

On broad avionic system was insufficient and did not correspond

Insufficient number of controllers to monitor the working station.

ANSPs allow one controller to work during low flow of traffic at night

Recommendations to prevent similar act in future:

Pilot obey and follow the TCAS Resolution Advisories regardless of ATC instructions.

ATC should operated with at least two air traffic controllers on active duty at all time.

ICAO should ensure high level of acceptance and confidence of pilots in ACAS.
Components of
Safety Management Systems

By Safia Bahas
A Framework for SMS
Need for a framework: vastness of the industry
Documents by various organizations such as ICAO, CAA, FAA.
In this presentation: Annex 19 Safety Management by ICAO
Implementation varies according to size and complexity of
operations
Four components are considered as the minimum requirements
Components of SMS

Figure 1 The Four components of SMS (FAA, 2016)

Safety Policy and Objectives
Aim: to establish commitment and constitutes of five elements
Managements primary responsibility: safe and efficient
operations
Accountability: responsibility at overall and specific levels
Appointment of qualified safety Manager: crucial
Emergency response plans: smooth transition from normal
operations
SMS documentation: top level documents and operational
records
Safety Risk Management
Objective: to identify hazards, assess risks, mitigate
accordingly
One of the critical factors to successful implementation
Elements: Hazard identification and Safety Risk
Assessment and Risk Mitigation
Covered in detailed in next part of the presentation
Safety Assurance
Aim: to assure there is compliance with international
standards and national regulations related to safety
Three elements
Safety performance monitoring and measurement:
mandatory and voluntary safety reporting systems
Managing change: updating the system
Continuous improvement: monitoring KPIs,
evaluations and audits
Safety Promotion
Objective: to provide awareness and training to
workforce to ensure safety
Constituted by two elements:
Training and education: indicative of commitment,
includes educating about organizations principles and
benefits of safety reporting
Safety communication: regular briefings, lessons from
previous instances, distribution
Safety Risk Management
Amal Hdayed
 Being a central component of the SMS, risk
management system plays a vital role in addressing the
risks in practical terms.

It is an ongoing process that involves the identification,

collection, analysis and the elimination of hazards.

It consists of three elements: Hazard identification,

Risk assessment and Risk Mitigation.
 Risk Assessment

Severity of hazards: Several elements should be tested to give an indication, such

as crew workload, exposure time to the hazard and other aggravating factors.

Frequency of Occurrence: This is estimated by using a classification scheme. In

the case of hardware failure, numerical data is used. But in the case of human
error, judgments of people with great experience and knowledge in that field are
used.
 Tolerability Assessment: is usually done under the form of a two-dimensional risk
classification matrix.

Risk Mitigation

Risk mitigation is the steps that are taken to prevent a hazard from causing damage
and to minimize risk to an acceptable level. The first step involves identifying the
types of defences:

Physical defences, consisting of specially designed hardware and software that

prevent undesirable action, or mitigate the consequences (e.g., warnings, alarms,
firewalls, switch covers, survival equipment).

Administrative defences, including regulations, practices and procedures that

reduce the frequency of occurrence of an accident/incident (e.g. local procedures,
safety regulations, training, supervision, and inspection).
There are several risk mitigation measures that are considered to eliminate the risk,
mitigate the risk or cope with it if it is unmanageable. Some of the approaches to risk
mitigation include:

Revision of the system design before implementing the system;

Modification of the operational procedures;
Changing staffing arrangements; and
Training of the personnel to deal with the hazard.

However, the expected potential of any suggested risk mitigation measure must be
evaluated by examining critically whether the performance of the mitigation measure
might lead to a new risk in the system.
Thank you!