Where Birds Don't Fly

An Aviation Safety Management System (SMS) provides a structured way to identify hazards, assess risks, introduce controls, and determine whether those controls work. Its purpose is to support sound decisions before harm occurs and improve operations through continuous learning. The Vikings called their SMS “Sail My Seas”. Viking voyages offer a useful historical analogy: crews crossed unfamiliar waters where weather, navigation, vessel condition, supplies, and human judgment could determine survival. Applying SMS principles to those journeys illustrates how leadership and organized learning can strengthen safety. This is a hypothetical comparison, rather than a claim that Vikings operated a formal SMS resembling modern aviation systems. The Vikings’ extensive voyages demonstrate the importance of managing uncertainty. Norse expansion across the North Atlantic connected distant communities and reached places including Iceland, Greenland, and North America. Such journeys required practi...

Aviation safety management requires more than assigning a colour or numerical score to a reported hazard. A comprehensive Safety Management System (SMS) must provide a consistent process that begins when a report is received, protects the operation through immediate securing actions, evaluates the hazard using defined criteria, determines the required organizational response, and follows the issue through investigation, corrective action, monitoring, and follow-up. The attached 10×10 risk matrix and supporting definitions provide this broader capability and therefore offer significant advantages over a conventional 5×5 matrix. The principal advantage of the 10×10 matrix is analytical resolution. A 5×5 matrix provides twenty-five likelihood-and-severity combinations, while a 10×10 matrix provides one hundred combinations. Aviation hazards frequently differ only incrementally in frequency, consequence, or operational exposure. When only five categories are available, materially different...