Audits an Important Air Safety Aid

Safety needs to be managed just like any other aspect of your operation. A wait and see approach is no longer afford able. Aviation operators, now more than ever, need to become more ‘safety active’ to ensure the highest of safety levels, at economically viable prices.

A safety audit is a cost effective approach to safety. Unfortunately, to many it is seen as an unnecessary obstacle thrust in front of them. It bears all the connotations of an academic, void of any aviation background, snooping around the company, giving you the third degree, and generally telling you that you are doing most things wrong. That is not how it is supposed to be! A safety audit is just another safety management tool, an important one, to help you conduct flying operations in as safe a manner as possible. Let me explain.

One isolated event never causes an accident. An accident is always preceded by a chain of events, and the links in that chain are flight safety hazards, or ‘unsafe’ events. Safety hazards range across the whole spectrum of aviation operations and rarely appear significant until placed into a sequence or chain with other hazards. If one of these safety hazards is removed from the sequence, the chain stops right there. The result is an incident rather than an accident.

Following this logic, an incident can be defined as a chain of events that has simply not progressed to the accident stage. Obviously the greater the number of flight safety hazards allowed to persist in any operation, the greater the chance of some combining to form a chain of sufficient length to lead to an accident. Reduce the number of safety hazards and you reduce the chance of an accident. Reduce the number of safety hazards still further and you reduce the chance of an incident. Simple, but how? It may seem like a blindingly obvious statement, but to reduce the number of flight safety hazards in an operation, they must first be identified. Once identified, it is a relatively simple process to either eliminate or neutralise them, provided the ‘corporate will’ is sufficient.

Traditional hazard identification resulted from accident and incident investigations. This method of hazard identification is most important and will continue to remain so. However, this process is reactive. A chain of events has been allowed to develop before a problem was recognised and a report submitted, thereby starting the process of investigation. If you are lucky you’ve had an incident rather than an accident.

A safety audit is a proactive approach to safety. It seeks to identify safety hazards before they become part of a chain. This process happens during the normal day to day operations of your company. When experienced company personnel recognise a hazard, some slip through the cracks and a more professional approach is required. An annual safety audit is the best method of achieving this aim.

The safety audit needs to be conducted by an independent safety authority. Objectivity will allow a safety analysis free of internal political pressures and ensure the elimination of hazards with which you have been working for some time and are possibly ‘too close’ to recognise as hazards.

Detailed checklists are used to examine all sections of your operation. The process is methodical and proven. It is not a finger pointing exercise. Members of the company are invited to contribute solutions to the hazard elimination process. Prior to departure, company executives are briefed on the findings and preliminary hazard elimination recommendations will be offered. This is followed with a detailed and confidential written report.

A safety audit can never eliminate accident and incident investigation as a method of hazard identification and is no ironclad guarantee of accident free operations. That can only be done by leaving the aircraft in the hangar.

A safety audit is a proactive safety process which provides cost effective hazard identification. It will decrease the number of hazards present in your operation which can form the costly chain of events leading to major incidents or accidents. workshop affairs, rectify known hazards and raise new safety Notice of a safety audit will induce workers to tidy their concerns. It will promote safety awareness and emphasise a management ‘open door’ policy on safety. Above all, the audit will give you, the company executive, a good indication of the safety health of your company.

How long was it since your last safety audit and how would your company stack up today?

John Herbertson and Gill Vardi are principal consultants to Aero Safe Industries Pty Ltd, an Australian company specialising in aviation safety and accident investigation.