Operating An SMS Aerodrome

An aerodrome operating with a safety management system (SMS) is an SMS aerodrome and the operator is required to comply with additional regulations than a registered aerodrome, or a non-SMS aerodrome. An SMS aerodrome is operated by an operator who prevent lands adjacent to or in the vicinity of the aerodrome or from being used or developed in a manner that is incompatible with the safe operation of an aerodrome or aircraft. In addition to operating in accordance with the SMS regulations, an SMS aerodrome operates with the aerodrome zoning regulations to maintain control of obstacle limitation surfaces on lands beyond aerodrome property. 

Before taking off from, landing at or otherwise operating an aircraft at an aerodrome, the pilot-in-command of the aircraft shall be satisfied that there is no likelihood of collision with another aircraft or a vehicle, and the aerodrome is suitable for the intended operation. 

Aerodrome operators are responsible for publishing their aerodrome information for pilots to assess aerodrome suitability. A suitable aerodrome originates at the instrument approach procedure for pilots flying by instrument flight rules (IFR), or on the downwind leg for pilots flying by visual flight rules (VFR). Suitability of an aerodrome also changes if there are visual meteorological conditions (VMC) at the aerodrome, or instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) at the aerodrome. However, aerodrome operators do not publish that there are infield structures impeding on the line of sight for pilots to determine that there is no likelihood of a collision and aerodrome suitability. An infield structure is a structure on the runway side of a line when drawing a line between two thresholds.  

A safety management system for aerodromes is a comprehensive and systematic approach to managing safety risks and ensuring the safety of aerodrome operations. It is a structured and proactive way of identifying, assessing, and mitigating safety hazards and risks within an aerodrome environment. SMS is particularly important in the aerodrome industry to ensure the safety in operations, safety for the travelling public, and safety for airside personnel.

Safety is a wide spectrum word and without a definite definition. Safety refers to the state of being free from harm, danger, or risk. It encompasses a range of measures, practices, and conditions designed to prevent accidents, injuries, and potential hazards. Safety is applied to various contexts, such as personal safety, workplace safety, road safety, and environmental safety. It involves identifying and mitigating potential dangers and promoting the well-being and protection of individuals, property, and the environment. Safety measures include the use of protective gear, adherence to safety guidelines and regulations, risk assessment, emergency preparedness, and the promotion of a culture that prioritizes the prevention of harm and accidents.

Free from harm means that something is not causing or experiencing any damage, injury, or negative consequences. It indicates a state where there is no risk or danger to the well-being, safety, or health of a person, animal, or object. It refers to the absence of physical, emotional, or psychological harm. For example, a safe environment or a product that is free from harmful effects is one that does not pose any threat or danger to individuals or entities involved.

Danger refers to a state or situation in which something or someone is exposed to the potential for harm, injury, damage, or loss. It signifies a condition where there is a risk or threat that adverse or harmful events may occur. Danger takes many forms, including physical, environmental, social, or even abstract risks. It's a concept that's often used to warn people of potential hazards or to describe circumstances that require caution, vigilance, and preventive measures to avoid harm. Understanding and recognizing danger is crucial for personal safety and decision-making in various aspects of life.

A risk is the potential for an undesirable or unexpected outcome or event to occur. It represents the uncertainty or probability of harm, loss, or negative consequences associated with a particular action, decision, situation, or event. Risks exist in various aspects of operations, including business, finance, health, and everyday activities.    

In the context of business and finance, risk often refers to the possibility of financial losses or negative impacts on investments, projects, or operations. Financial risks are highly applicable to aerodrome operations, since customer service affects their revenue.    

 
Financial Risk: The risk of losing money due to factors such as market volatility, credit issues, or economic downturns.

Market Risk: The risk associated with changes in market conditions, such as fluctuations in stock prices, interest rates, or currency exchange rates.

Operational Risk: The risk of losses resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, systems, people, or external events.

Credit Risk: The risk that a borrower or counterparty will fail to meet their financial obligations.
Legal and Regulatory Risk: The risk of legal actions, compliance issues, or regulatory changes that can impact an organization's operations.

Reputational Risk: The risk associated with damage to an organization's reputation, which can result from various factors, including public perception and social media.

In a broader sense, risk applies to personal and everyday life situations, such as the risks associated with flying an airplane, working airside at an aerodrome, driving a car, health-related risks, and even the risks associated with trying something new or making important life decisions. In these cases, individuals often assess and manage risks to make informed choices and minimize potential negative consequences.

Risk management involves identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to minimize their impact based on likelihood, severity, and exposure. Different strategies are employed to manage and mitigate with risks, including risk avoidance, risk reduction, risk transfer, and risk acceptance.

When referring to safety and to ensure safety in aerodrome and aircraft operations, the word safety has no meaning until it is defined within a specified probability environment in time (speed), space (location), and compass (direction). Examples of environment could be to expect inflight icing across mountain ridges at a specific time, at a specified location, and direction of flight. Only when safety is defined it becomes possible to mitigate safety in operations. 

Operating an SMS aerodrome is different from how aerodromes were operated prior to the safety management system regulations. Prior to the SMS regulations, an aerodrome operator was an airside maintainer only without other responsibilities than to ensure the runways were there every morning. Being an airside maintainer, their responsibilities were to replace or repair as required when items failed. Aerodrome Operations Manuals (AOM) were literally placed on a shelf to collect dust. With the SMS regulations, everything changed for aerodrome operators. 

Aerodrome operators had to make drastic changes to their operating process and their everyday work responsibilities and maintain an SMS manual with required content. 

Safety Policy: An aerodrome's management establishes a safety policy that outlines its commitment to safety and sets the overall safety objectives and goals. This policy serves as a foundation for the SMS.

Safety Risk Management: This process involves identifying and analyzing safety hazards and risks within aerodrome operations. Hazard identification and risk assessment are crucial steps in this process.

Safety Assurance: In this phase, safety performance is monitored and measured to ensure that the safety objectives are met. This may involve safety audits, inspections, data collection, and analysis.

Safety Promotion: Promoting a safety culture and raising awareness among aerodrome personnel is essential. Training, communication, and safety education programs are often included in this aspect of the SMS.

Safety Reporting and Investigation: Establishing a system for reporting safety incidents, near misses, and safety concerns is vital. Investigations are carried out to determine the root causes of safety events and to prevent their recurrence.

Safety Documentation: Maintaining proper documentation of safety-related activities, including risk assessments, incident reports, and safety manuals, is a critical component of an SMS.

Safety Communication: Effective communication among all stakeholders, including aerodrome personnel, airlines, regulators, and other organizations, is essential to ensure the exchange of safety information and lessons learned.

Emergency Response Planning: Preparing for and responding to emergencies, such as aircraft accidents, natural disasters, or security threats, is a critical part of aerodrome safety management.

Continuous Improvement: An SMS is a dynamic system that requires continuous improvement. Lessons learned from safety events and performance data are used to make necessary changes to enhance safety.

These SMS requirements aim to enhance safety and reduce the likelihood of accidents or incidents within the aviation sector. The specific requirements and guidelines for SMS implementation needs to be tailored to the size and complexity of the aerodrome.

All these safety initiatives, Safety Policy, Safety Risk Management, Safety Assurance, Safety Promotion, Safety Reporting and Investigation, Safety Documentation and Safety Communication, are necessary to operate an SMS aerodrome. Until each safety items are defined and specified, no actions are required by the aerodrome operator and an SMS aerodrome operator remains an airside maintainer. 

Linking the SMS policy to airside processes is crucial to remain of the path of operational control. 

Start by identifying the policies that are relevant to specific processes. These could include quality management, data security, compliance, or any other policies applicable to the SMS enterprise.

Have a clear understanding of the processes within the SMS enterprise. Document these processes step by step to identify key activities, stakeholders, and safety critical areas and safety critical functions. 

For each process, map the specific requirements outlined in relevant policies. This ensures that every step in the process aligns with the guidelines set forth in the policies. Apply the Daily Rundown principle, which is daily quality control system of processes.

Develop documentation that clearly outlines how each policy is integrated into the corresponding process. This documentation should be easily accessible to employees involved in these processes.

Ensure that employees are aware of the policies linked to their processes. Conduct training sessions to communicate the importance of adherence to these policies and how it directly relates to their day-to-day activities.

Implement monitoring and auditing mechanisms to track compliance with linked policies. Regularly review processes to ensure that they continue to align with established guidelines.

Establish a feedback mechanism where employees can report challenges or suggest improvements related to policy implementation within processes. This helps in continuous improvement.

If applicable, integrate the linkage between policies and processes into the organization's quality management systems. This can streamline the overall governance and compliance framework.

Policies and processes are dynamic and may change over time. Regularly review and update the linkage between policies and processes to ensure continued relevance. When updating is policy It is crucial to update the policy based on visions of what to achieve and what the organization will look like in the future.

Maintain a centralized repository for all documentation related to policies and their linkage to processes. This makes it easier for employees to access the information they need. SiteDocs is an acceptable program for data collection, resource library and to maintain SMS compliance. 

Remember, the goal is to create a seamless integration between policies and processes, fostering a culture of compliance and efficiency within the organization. 

    

Over the years aerodromes have accommodated for changes to size and complexity in aircraft operations. Runways are paved, marked with linear dimensions given to the nearest one-half metre. Before survey accuracy were measured by a global positioning system (GPS) a measuring wheel was used to measure runway dimensions. There were no calibration standards for measuring tools, and an aerodrome operator was therefore required to supply their own measuring tool for regulatory inspections. Today, runway length measurements are precise and also consider the change in runway length caused by geoid undulation. Prior to SMS, aerodromes estimated obstacle heights in approach and departure paths for interference with approaches and departures by visual reference only.

  
Changes and improvements were made to improve safety, but without specifying the details of what safety elements were improved. It was just done for safety reasons and left up to everyone’s imagination to use their own judgement when defining safety.

What has changed with an SMS aerodrome is to expand how an aerodrome operator maintain processes and actions to specific and defined safety items. During VMC or IMC and before taking off from, landing at or otherwise operating an aircraft at an aerodrome, the pilot-in-command (PIC) of the aircraft shall be satisfied that there is no likelihood of collision with another aircraft or a vehicle, and the aerodrome is suitable for the intended operation. There are two specific safety items an aerodrome operator needs to maintain within their safety management system to assist pilots using their aerodrome. These are the aerodrome zoning regulations, including obstacle limitations surfaces, and airside line of sight.  

Aerodrome zoning regulation (AZR) is a regulation applicable to lands adjacent to and in the vicinity of an aerodrome. An aerodrome is under federal jurisdiction, while lands outside of the aerodrome is under local jurisdiction. An aerodrome operator does not have the authority to remove obstacles beyond aerodrome property that are interfering with the approach or departures path unless they are operating with the aerodrome zoning regulations. 

An aerodrome without an AZR is a non-SMS aerodrome since the operator does not have control of approach and departure obstacles. A PIC of an aircraft on an IMC approach in clouds down to 200 feet or lower, is unable to determine if the approach is suitable with obstacle clearance unless an aerodrome has their AZR in place to control obstacles beyond the aerodrome fence. 

    
Aerodrome zoning regulations are typically implemented at the federal level but may also be implemented at the municipal level. The regulations may vary between different provinces and territories, and even among municipalities within the same province. 

Obstacle Limitation Surfaces (OLS): Aerodromes establish obstacle limitation surfaces around runways and other critical areas. These surfaces define the maximum height of structures and objects to ensure safe takeoffs and landings.

Land Use Planning: Zoning regulations often dictate the types of land uses permitted in areas surrounding aerodromes. Residential, commercial, and industrial developments may be subject to different restrictions to prevent incompatible land uses.

Noise Regulations: Some areas may have noise regulations to address concerns related to aerodrome operations. These regulations may impact the types of activities allowed in proximity to the aerodrome.

Building Height Restrictions: Restrictions on the height of structures are common to prevent obstacles that could interfere with aircraft movements. These restrictions are typically based on the OLS and other safety considerations.

Aviation Easements: Property owners near aerodromes may be required to grant aviation easements to ensure unobstructed flight paths. These easements may limit the use of the land to prevent the construction of tall structures.

Environmental Considerations: Regulations may address environmental impacts associated with aerodrome activities, including issues such as wildlife management, air quality, and water protection.

An SMS aerodrome must maintain airside line of sight to each threshold and approach end. At aerodromes with cross runways, aerodrome terminals and hangars my be build and obstruct pilots’ view. When the view to an approach and threshold is obstructed by a building, the pilot is unable to ensure that there is no likelihood of collision with another aircraft or a vehicle. It was not very long ago that a runway incursion occurred when one aircraft departed while another aircraft landed on the cross runway. Practices such as Land and Hold Short (LAHSO) is incompatible with an SMS aerodrome.  

Airside line of sight refers to the unobstructed visual field or line of sight in areas that are part of airside operations. The airside of an aerodrome refers to the area that is inside the aerodrome fence, and includes runways, taxiways, aprons, and other areas where aircraft operate.

Maintaining a clear line of sight is crucial in airside operations to ensure the safety and efficiency of aircraft and vehicle movements. Pilots, air traffic controllers, ground crew, and other personnel need to have unobstructed visibility to monitor and coordinate the movement of aircraft on the ground. Any obstacles or obstructions that impede the line of sight can pose safety risks and may lead to accidents or incidents.

An operator of an SMS aerodrome takes into account their SMS policy and its requirements in addition to regulations and standards. Since regulations and standards are performance based, the intent, or process output, of regulations and standard becomes the governing compliance factors. 

A major change with the aerodrome SMS regulations was for aerodrome operators to accept responsibility and accountability by initiate corrective actions. They were also required to comply with the intent of their SMS polity, intent of performance-based regulations, and intent of performance-based standards. Performance-based regulations and standards are based on a 95% confidence level. Moving from prescriptive to performance-based regulations is a major safety-culture change.

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