This Subject will be presented, considered, and discussed during the forthcoming Aviation Quality & Safety Management Symposium 2019 on May 14 & May 15 at the Holiday Inn Sofia. 

The acceptance of the CEO, the Safety Manager, and, the executive team depends on a thin line between a real mistake and negligence or unacceptable conduct.

Without an effective and thriving safety culture, there will never be a fully functioning SMS.

If you are engaged in Aviation Quality & Safety Management this is your one "must-attend" event of the year.

This Subject will be presented, considered and discussed during the forthcoming Aviation Quality & Safety Management Symposium 2019 May 14 & May 15 at the Holiday Inn Sofia. 

One of the measures of a successful Safety Management System (SMS) within an organisation, is a common understanding throughout the company of what needs to be achieved to deliver the objectives and how it should be done.

Getting Behind the Objective

Provide a unified approach, one in which we all understand our individual roles, bring a common organisational system

Find out how you can improve and develop your current Flight Data Monitoring System by attending The Aviation Quality & Safety Management Symposium 2019 Holiday Inn Sofia Bulgaria on May 14^th & 15^th

‘If you are engaged in Aviation Quality & Safety Management in an EASA Environment this is your one ‘must attend’ event of the year’

Introduce your OPS Team to Aerosight Flight Data Monitoring Software

▪ See a Presentation and Understand the benefits of the Software
▪ Update regarding Challenges Facing Quality, Safety & Security Business Areas
▪ Network with Industry Colleagues

A Discussion Paper by Steve Bentley Group CEO of Sofema Aviation Services www.sassofia.com

Clearing up the Basic Stuff

SMS is not QMS by another name they are both separate and significantly important QMS together with Quality Assurance (QA) strives to deliver a fully compliant product or process, whereas SMS considers the risk associated with any & all business risks. SMS is both subjective & forward-looking. A fully functioning Safety Management System contributes to the viability of the organisation by addressing safety risks.

SMS should focus on real-time performance monitoring and reporting together with effective data analysis – a major challenge being to consider how to capture the required data across the business validly.

The Emergency Response Plan should demonstrate compliance with ORO.GEN.200 and AMC1 ORO.GEN,200(a)(1);(2);(3)(5) point (f) and should be designed to help the organisation to respond in the case of accidents, serious incidents, or any other abnormal event triggering a crisis.

The number of phases that need to be implemented needs to be established to prevent the potential confusion that can result when emergencies arise.

Senior management must identify the responsibilities within their organisation, respond to the needs of the next of kin of the crew and the passengers, and assist with the emergency services and the authority in charge of any investigation.

Emergency Response Plan Objective

The Emergency Response Plan aims to:

Sofema Aviation Services www.sassofia.com considers the steps necessary to deliver an effective Organisational Aviation Safety Management System (SMS)

For Any Organizational Project to be successful it must have ownership, an agreed timeline, and sufficient resources to accomplish.

The Importance of Manpower Commitment

Note 1 – How does the organisation ensure there is sufficient manpower – what is the mechanism to assess – who is responsible and how does the Accountable Manager know he has this correct?

Note 2 – How does the AM ensure sufficient financial commitment to the delivery of a successful SMS – how is this represented and measured?

Within the Aviation Safety Management System, it is necessary to develop effective methods of both top-down & Bottom Communication.

How to measure the current status of communication effectiveness?

Consider a Communication Audit!

A communication audit is a thorough evaluation of the organization’s ability to deliver information to every level within the organisation.

Essential the communication audit looks at both the internal mechanisms as well as the external communications for example:

a) With Contract Organizations – Data Exchange Methods!
b) With Sub Contract Service Providers (Direct Oversight)
c) Delivering information to the Front Line
d) Dealing with the challenge of the Iceberg or Ignorance

Sofema Aviation Services www.sassofia.com considers the major challenges

Introduction

Without doubt, an Effective Aviation Safety Management System (SMS) provides the industry with a key driver to manage the various elements, which together can support the lowering of exposure and lead to a reduction of incidents and accidents.

The crux of implementing an effective safety management system (SMS) is not just in defining it, but effectively implementing it throughout the business with everyone acting as a stakeholder and engaging with the organisations processes.

Regulatory Background

According to Regulation (EC), No 216/2008, (Basic Regulation Replaced by 2018/1139) Pilot training organisations and aero-medical centres are to hold a certificate.

The certificate is to be issued upon fulfillment of certain technical and administrative requirements. Rules on the administration and management system of these organisations should therefore be provided for.

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 (amended by Regulation 290/2012) lays down detailed rules for certain pilots’ licences and for the conversion of national pilots’ licences and of national flight engineers’ licences into pilots’ licences, as well as the conditions for the acceptance of licences from third countries.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Technical Standard Order (TSO), European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), European Technical Standard Order (ETSO) Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA), Canadian Technical Standard Order (CAN-TSO).

Sofema Aviation Service (www.sassofia.com) provides regulatory and vocational compliant training for EASA, FAA, OTAR, GCAA & GACA regulations.

A Bi-Lateral Agreement exists between the EU & Canada and between the EU & FAA concerning mutual recognition, the following document considers the relationship.

Acceptance

Acceptance is when an importing authority acknowledges an exporting authority’s issuance and treats it with the same validity as if they had made the issuance.

In plain language:

Introduction 

Agreement was reached concerning the extension of 145 certification approvals between the European Community (European Aviation Safety Agency - EASA) and the USA (Federal Aviation Administration - FAA) and between EASA and Canada (Transport Canada Civil Aviation - TCAA).

Details of the agreements are issued in the form of two separate guidance materials known as Maintenance Annex Guidance and hereinafter referred to as the MAG. 

Maintenance Annex Guidance 

Is sub-divided into three Sections; 

Official Title

Technical Implementation Procedures for Airworthiness and Environmental Certification under The Agreement on Civil Aviation Safety between The Government of Canada & the European Union (Revision 3 - 18 September 2017).

Purpose

The purpose of these Technical Implementation Procedures is to define the interface requirements and activities between Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for the import, export, and continued support of civil aeronautical products.

TCCA and EASA shall conduct their certification and validation activities consistent with the Agreement on Civil Aviation Safety (hereafter referred to as the Agreement) and these Technical Implementation Procedures.

Steve Bentley MD of Sofema Aviation Services (www.sassofia.com) takes a look at the Flight Ops Quality System

Introduction

In 1998 The Joint Aviation Authorities launched JAR-OPS 1 (and “3”) contained within the document for the first time a specific requirement (JAR-OPS Subpart B 1.035) for an independent audit function within the Operations Environment – With the transition to EASA Regulation 965/2012 several anomalies and miss conceptions where addressed. 

The UAE Ops Regulation is fundamentally based on JAR-OPS 1.

What is an EASA Quality System?

Essentially it consists of a method to deliver the organisations “product” under the control of nominated persons – this is a “Control of Quality” together with an independent function to assess compliance and this is known as “Quality Assurance”.

Note 1 – This appendix carries essential information relevant to the management and oversight responsibilities of an Organisation, both internally within the organisation and externally related to subcontract service providers.

(a) General An operator must have a sound and effective management structure to ensure the safe conduct of air operations.

Nominated post holders must have managerial competency together with appropriate technical/operational qualifications in aviation.

Note 2 – Consider the challenge of managing and maintaining competence – how is it controlled? How is it managed and against what standard is it audited?

(b) Nominated Post Holders

FDM Data Analysis Introduction

Introduction

EASA Compliant Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) is the exploitation of flight data to support an understanding of the various exposures, the knowledge of which, may successfully lead to the development of mitigations that can be employed to enhance flight safety.

Aircraft are analysed to identify any exceedances (a specialist task typically performed using software tools). Analysts can analyse data from normal ops to identify trends before there is a significant event or incident.

The amount of Digital Data available in modern aircraft facilitates FDM providing the opportunity for effective analysis which is essential to provide for the best decisions regarding both the performance of flight crew as well as the aircraft systems and processes.

Aircraft are analysed to identify any exceedances (a specialist task typically performed using software tools).

Gathering FDM Data

Traditionally, data needs to be downloaded to a removable disk regularly before the data is lost. However the latest technologies allow wireless data transmission from recorders to the ground station, which is more accessible for research and monitoring purposes.

SofemaOnline (www.sofemaonline.com) takes a look at fire safety.

Understanding simple rules can help us to do the right thing when we are faced with a Fire Emergency.

Ensuring Fire safety means understanding the set of practices that are intended to reduce the exposure to the risk of Fire under any circumstances.

Fire safety measures include all activities and behaviours that are intended to prevent the possibility of an uncontrolled fire.

What is Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA)?

Even though Aviation is probably the safest form of mass transport, there remains an inherent obligation to reduce exposure and thereby drive down accident rates.

Operational Flight Data Monitoring, known more recently as Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA), is probably the most important safety tool available to aviation.

Essentially Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) is the exploitation of flight data to support an understanding of the various exposures, the knowledge of which, may successfully lead to the development of mitigations that can be employed to enhance flight safety.

SofemaOnline www.sofemaonline.com takes a look at a typical FDM configuration

Primary Objective

According to Commission Regulation (EU) 965/2012, “Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) means the proactive and non-punitive use of digital flight data from routine operations to improve aviation safety”.

European regulations expect the National Aviation Authority – NAA (competent authority) to have oversight of the Management Systems of their aircraft operators.

An EASA Flight Data Monitoring System (FDM) provides a set of tools for the operator to monitor operational safety. (FDM becomes the main data source for monitoring the operational safety level.)

Operational Flight Data Monitoring, known more recently as Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA), is probably the most important safety tool available to aviation.

Rather than reacting to serious incidents, operators have a very useful tool to proactively identify safety hazards and mitigate the risks.

What Happens to Identified Events?

Whilst each event typically needs to be investigated so that the appropriate management decisions may be made by the airline, there is an opportunity for a deeper and longer-lasting outcome.

Event data may be managed to facilitate the wider and longer-term trend analysis so that events & issues can be identified and corrective action is taken.