A few thoughts on Safety...

Since I started expanding my connections on social media, I’ve come across numerous professionals working in Safety Management. Seeing different posts and opinions, as usual, sparked some reflections and thoughts that I wanted to share in this month’s newsletter.

Let’s start by trying to define what “safety management” actually is.
In the book Introduction to Aircraft Management that Bret Peters and I wrote, we defined it as a cultural philosophy supported by practices and procedures for monitoring and improving safety within an organization.

These “practices and procedures” aim to make your operations “safe” — or at least “safer.”
But what does safe mean? How do we explain it, or even quantify it?

Safe isn’t a thing — it’s a feeling. And as such, we all perceive it differently.
For example, rock climbing feels perfectly safe to some people — certainly not to me. Flying feels safe to me, while my father is terrified of it (even if he doesn’t want to admit it).

So, what is safe? That’s a conversation that could go on for years. I’ll just touch on a few aspects here.

Safety is the perception people have that makes them feel nothing “bad” will happen to them.
And here, we could go even deeper — what is bad? Everyone has a different threshold.

If we stick to aviation, “bad” usually means an accident or incident.
If you fly from A to B and arrive without either, that would qualify as a safe flight — maybe not comfortable or pleasant, but safe.

So coming back to safety management, are we saying that when aviation professionals embrace safety management, we’re managing the perception of safety?

Most of us would probably disagree with that terminology. But then, what are we managing exactly?

We often hear — and I fully agree — that SMS brings a proactive approach to organizational structures so that accidents and incidents can be caught before they happen. The cost of implementing an SMS is said to balance out when you consider how many accidents or incidents are avoided thanks to it.

But how do we know that?
It sometimes feels as if we’re taking for granted that something “bad” will inevitably happen — so we need SMS to prevent it.

That’s always puzzled me a little. It’s like assuming you’ll definitely get cancer one day, so you implement a series of preventive practices — not all of them cost-effective — just to stay ahead of the game.

And I’m not opposed to that mindset at all. But… what game are we playing? It seems to me it’s one we’ve created ourselves.

I train at least four times a week and keep a very active lifestyle with gardening and other activities. Aside from the enjoyment, I believe in preventive maintenance — as we’d say in the maintenance world. I take care of myself so I can live a good life — not necessarily a long one, but a good one.

So, is that what we’re doing with SMS?

SMS is now mandatory almost everywhere, yet I’m not sure it’s working as effectively as we’d like — especially considering some of the major accidents we’ve seen in recent years, starting with the MAX aircraft and beyond.

This is a complex topic that I’ll continue and expand upon in the next monthly newsletter.

For now, I hope this article sparked some reflection on what safe means, what safety is, and how we truly manage it.

Annalisa

Aviation Specialist - Aircraft Management/CAMO