Where Birds Don't Fly

When an airport operator or an air operator appoints a qualified person as the Accountable Executive, the options are wide open to appoint anyone in the organization who they see qualified to be responsible for operations or activities authorized under the certificate and to be accountable on The AE is a position without performance requirements. behalf of the operator for meeting the requirements of the regulations. The requirement to qualify as the AE is a person who has demonstrated control of the financial and human resources that are necessary for the activities and operations authorized under the certificate. This is a broad description of qualifications, but becomes limited to organizational structure of authority. The appointment of an airport AE compared to an air operator AE is slightly different, since an airport certificate is issued to a land-surveyed area, while an air operator certificate is issued to an individual or a corporate body. An AE for an airport is responsible...

In an SMS world the leader of the SMS program is the Accountable Executive, or the AE, who is playing the role as a sponsor of a specific project. A sponsor is a person who provides funding necessary, or a percentage of a project or activity carried out by someone else. A sponsor does not have direct inputs on the activities in the project, but can affect management decisions by withdrawing the sponsorship or increase their funding of both financial and human resources. Upon Comprehension of the SMS is what defines human and financial resources. the completion of the project there is no impact on the sponsor, other than the reputation of the project, or activity that was sponsored. It works the same way in aviation, being an airline or an airport, as long as the Accountable Executive can document their role as the sponsor of the project by the control of financial and human resources; the only repercussion to the operations is their pride and reputation from devastating audit findings....