The Part 5 SMS Gap Analysis Fallacy
Part 5 SMS development and the outdated SMS gap analysis. Safety Management Systems (SMS) have come a long way since 2006, when they were first mandated by ICAO. At that time, SMS requirements were new and not well understood. So to help aviation service providers (aka operators) comply with the new requirements, ICAO introduced the…
Read MoreDeveloping a Part 5 SMS – There’s a Better Way
Developing a Part 5 SMS? Don’t re-invent the wheel! Today, with SMS mandates on the horizon for part 135 operators, 14 CFR § 91.147 operators, and certain part 21 certificate holders, many people still think their SMS needs to be developed internally. So they spend 3 days attending an expensive class, study the 148-page Advisory…
Read MoreMy Organizational Accident
On January 06, 1996, Convair 440 N358SA crashed while on approach to Spokane International Airport (KGEG). The aircraft was being re-positioned under Part 91 from Deer Park AZ to Spokane under a ferry permit (special flight permit) due to the aircraft being out of inspection. Recency of experience, fatigue, icing, equipment malfunction, and fuel mismanagement…
Read MoreEmergency Maintenance, Drug and Alcohol Misuse
Drug and alcohol misuse continue to plague our aviation industry today. Back in 2017 the U.S. DOT proposed adding four opioids—hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxymorphone and oxycodone – to FAA’s drug testing requirements for certain commercial pilots, aircraft mechanics and other covered employees. In my opinion, it was long overdue. Painkiller addiction and abuse have plagued us…
Read MoreError-Capturing Strategies and System Design
Building error tolerance, error mitigation, and error-capturing strategies into our systems should be one of the most important outputs of safety management. These strategies are a hallmark of good system design. And when system design flaws are discovered, risk controls are implemented. Monitoring of the affected process then helps us see if our strategies are…
Read MoreThreat & Error Management
Threat and error management (TEM) is not new; we’ve been practicing it at some level for decades, and it occurs in just about every flight operation, every maintenance operation, and in everything we do hiyo3lg. We just don’t call it that, or think about it in those terms. Back in the 1980’s I was training…
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