One person within the flight operation needs to be responsible for managing Aviation SMS. This person is the Aviation Safety Officer and will report direct to the Chief Executive so that any reports, recommendations or urgent issues can be assured of the highest level of consideration.

Depending on the size of your flight operations, aviation safety officer may be full time permanent employees, and at the major flight operations the person may have one or more assistants.

Responsibility of aviation safety officers needs to be clearly defined, however the most important thing is that clear lines of communication and responsibility exist between aviation safety officers and senior management.

Depending on the size of your organization, safety officers may need to be supported by an aviation safety action group or safety committee. This group would act as a source of expertise and advice particularly with respect to aviation safety recommendations and preparation of reports to senior management.

Committees would also act as a forum for discussing flight operations and organizational safety related issues. At large airports this may mean a cross-functional committee that takes in all of the operators’ different operating areas.

Committee would be ideally chaired by aviation safety officer and meet on a regular basis. Minutes and action items are to be recorded as part of normal functioning of committee and made available to staff.

Eight-step process relates to any flight operation. Eight step process involves:

1. Aviation Safety Policy
2. Management accountability
3. Establish process to manage flight-safety risks
4. Setting up a aviation safety reporting system to record flight hazards, risks and actions taken
5. Training and educating staff
6. Auditing flight operations and investigating incidents and accidents
7. Setting up aviation safety management system to control documentation and data
8. Evaluating how aviation safety management system is operating