Where Birds Don't Fly

After several years of operating with a safety management system (SMS), an SMS enterprise should be operating with zero regulatory findings. The accountable executive (AE) should have full control over the path their SMS has taken in the past and established a vision in their SMS policy of what to expect in the future. The are three regulatory compliance principles for a successful safety management system. The accountable executive is responsible for compliance with all regulations, the certificate holder (CH) is responsible for the quality assurance program (QAP), the person managing the safety management system (SMS manager) is responsible for monitoring concerns that the aviation industry has about your airport. A healthy SMS includes a risk management officer (RMO) position. Risk management is what makes a safety management system a healthy SMS within a fluid environment and ever-changing priorities.   The duties of a risk management officer are often assigned to an SMS m...

The Titanic disaster was caused by a detail in the watertight compartment design flaw that the walls separating the bulkheads extended only a few feet above the water line, so water could pour from one compartment into another, especially if the ship began to list or pitch forward.  The Alexander Kielland disaster was caused by a fatigue crack in one of its six bracings, which connected the collapsed D-leg to the rest of the rig. This was traced to a small 6mm fillet weld which joined a non-load-bearing flange plate to this D-6 bracing. The Sioux City IA air disaster was cause by a catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine due to an unnoticed manufacturing defect in the engine's fan disk, which resulted in the loss of many flight controls. None of these details were identified as issues of any concerns, but they caused some of the most horrific and catastrophic historical events within their own areas of history. Titanic was built to be unsinkable, a deep-sea diver once said ...