Where Birds Don't Fly

Coincident with the safety management system (SMS) regulations, organizations are required to appoint an accountable executive (AE). The accountable executive is a single, identifiable person within each organization who will discharge the certificate holder’s responsibilities, and in particular, lead in cultural change within a just-culture. It is imperative that the correct person be identified as the accountable executive, and that the individual understands and accepts the roles and responsibilities associated with that position. This is not intended to be a position title without accountability, and on the other hand, it is not a position to accept liability. Simplified, the position as an accountable executive is a position where the appointed person is responsible for airline or airport operations and accountable on behalf of the certificate holder (CH) for meeting the requirements of these regulations.  The AE is responsible to the regulator to operate with processes that c...

Conventional wisdom is that a healthy safety management system (SMS) stays in the rut without deviation from current course. One reason for this belief is that the SMS regulations states airlines and airports must operate with a process for reporting and analyzing hazards, incidents, and accidents, and for taking corrective actions to prevent their recurrence. When this regulation is interpreted that only one reoccurrence is a regulatory violation, the operation, airlines, or airports, must shift gears to operate with an abundance of caution for every flight or airside task. As reoccurrence continues, they must then overcontrol their processes with additional abundance of caution to their processes that already had received several abundances of cautions from their magic wand. Eliminating all hazards, incidents, and accidents is beyond what the magic wand of a safety management system can do. The regulatory requirement to prevent their recurrence is applied without consideration fo...