Q1. With SMS regulations, are not the existing Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs) as well as audits and inspections no longer required?
SMSs are not self-regulation, nor are they de-regulation. The introduction of SMS has never been about reducing the number of inspectors or cutting costs. SMS regulations are in addition to the current regulations and, by definition, add an extra layer of safety to create a more comprehensive, robust and demanding regulatory framework.
Surveillance of operations under SMS will focus on assessments and validations. These new tools are designed to measure an operator’s ability to identify, assess, and address hazards within their organization, from a reactive and proactive viewpoint. The aim is to identify, mitigate or eliminate hazards to safe operations, before they lead to incidents or accidents. Should assessments or validations fail to provide the necessary data to show the SMS is effective, inspections and audits will be used to provide that data.
This is a comprehensive approach to safety oversight under the SMS regulatory framework and not, as some observers have highlighted, a review of the accuracy and completeness of an operator’s paperwork or an acceptance of what an operator is asserting is the situation. The assessment and validation tools enable inspectors to challenge an operator’s compliance record and assertions. In addition, operators are forced to demonstrate the effectiveness of their systems, that is, their ability to identify, assess and respond to safety concerns before they become safety occurrences. If an operator cannot do that, enforcement action or administrative certificate action would be the next step
Q2. How does a safety management system differ from traditional control methods?
SMS is a natural progression from traditional techniques, based on modern understandings of the nature of organizational accidents and how they occur. SMS has much in common with modern quality assurance that may not be directly involved with day to day flight operations, but nevertheless have the potential to indirectly affect aviation safety.
One other notable difference is that while traditional safety and quality systems were managed at the certificate level - for example, having separate systems for Air Operators and Aviation Maintenance Organizations (AMOs) - SMS looks at the enterprise as a whole. While the majority of SMS activity will continue to be directed toward particular specialist functions, the system is also concerned with how those functions interrelate.
To a large extent, the effectiveness of SMS relies on the corporate culture. The aim of SMS is to achieve a culture wherein each individual contributes to and is responsible for safety, and where the reporting of safety concerns is actively encouraged.
Under safety management systems (SMSs), the inspector’s role is more important than ever. Why? They will not only make sure that companies comply with regulations, they will measure how effective companies’ SMSs really are.
Enhancing the work of inspectors
Safety management systems add an additional layer of safety regulation and provide additional rigour to Transport Canada’s current oversight program of inspections and audits.
New oversight methods
In the past, Transport Canada (TC) inspectors audited procedures and reviewed records to see if a company met regulations or not. These are known as compliance inspections. Under safety management systems, inspectors will be taking a more in-depth look at companies. Inspectors will also go into a company to watch how it operates and speak with the workers to measure how well a company’s procedures identify and address safety hazards before they become a serious safety risk. This allows TC inspectors to have more contact with a company’s senior management, supervisors and employees.
Evaluating effectiveness and compliance
The top-level assessment looks to see if the safety management system (SMS) complies with regulations and measures how effective a system it is, based on performance. Inspectors review a system by activity, and rate each sub-activity with a score from one to five. Scores are based on defined expectations, and a score of three means that the regulations are being met. A score above three means that the company goes beyond simply meeting a basic requirement and adopts industry best practices – always working to improve they way it operates.
When a company is getting ready to operate under a SMS, Transport Canada (TC) inspectors will evaluate each planned SMS activity before it is put into action. Companies moving to a SMS regime will follow a timetable for getting the system approved and running. When the SMS is in place, TC will continue to conduct recurrent inspections.
Taking a closer look at a company
The second level of oversight is always testing the effectiveness of the safety management system for finding, reporting and addressing safety hazards before they become safety problems. This oversight involves specific, targeted and routine inspections. These inspections take time to go inside a company’s operations to watch how they:
- discover hazards;
- rate hazards;
- find the root causes of hazards;
- respond to hazards and their causes;
- monitor corrective actions to see if they worked.
These program validation inspections go beyond simply making sure a company complies with regulations. Transport Canada inspectors can step in at any point in the process to make sure that the company follows our regulations as well as measure how well they apply them.
When there is doubt that an operation’s level of compliance with all the regulations is low, but the program validation inspections do not prove this, a compliance inspection will be conducted.
Enforcing the law
If the operator does not try to correct any problems found by inspectors, they will be fined, or even shut down.
Bishop Raymond Lahey arrives at a police station in Ottawa on Thursday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)