I would like to give a detailed response about or your opinion and talk about the article below in a manner that adds information AND asks new and interesting questions. ——————————————————————————
When thinking about the aviation industry and safety management systems, the first part of the industry that comes to my mind is major air carriers. What this week brought to my attention though is that SMS implementation exists at 14 CFR Part 141 flight schools as well. SMS is actually very important at these flight schools because they are the source of training and educating the pilots for the industry. Although SMS are mandatory for major air carriers, they are actually voluntary for 141 fight schools but highly recommended. As talked about throughout this course, SMS, in general, brings about an enhanced amount of safety to every organization and industry. A major aspect that could be part of SMS at part 141 schools is external auditing and my question this week involves what this looks like and what different types there are.
Safety auditing, in general, is part of safety management which there is a critical evaluation of components like safety policy, change in management, operating and/or emergency procedures, and possibly even the SMS as a whole. The main goal of this is to “disclose the strengths and weaknesses, to identify areas of non-tolerable risk and devise rectification measures” (Safety Audit, 2017). A lot of Part 141 flight schools can use external safety auditing programs administered by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), like their Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). This audit “offers service providers a host of capabilities, to include a quality audit program characterized by the continuous updates to reflect regulatory revisions and best practices, the elimination of audit redundancy, formally trained and qualified auditors and a structured audit methodology with standardized checklists” (Stolzer, A. J., & Goglia, J. J, 2015). If schools can’t afford external audits though there are other ways to perform them. For example, Stolzer mentions Embry Riddle Aeronautical University’s audits. A few of the types they use are, one from an “outside organization that is conducted by a qualified aviation organization,” a self one by their director of aviation safety, one by an “industry advisory committee audit that is conducted by a team comprising members of the ERAU Industry Advisory Council” and also one conducted by the university insurance carrier (Stolzer, 2015).
References
Safety Audit. (2017). SKYbrary. https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Safety_Audits (Links to an external site.)
Stolzer, A. J., & Goglia, J. J. (2015). Safety management systems in aviation. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
