Program Domains – Safety Manager Certificate Program

NBAA’s Safety Manager Certificate Program focuses on six key areas related to safety management systems (SMSs).

Each of these domains will be covered by an asynchronous learning module to provide introductory-level training. Successful candidates will pass the final examination, which assesses the candidate’s knowledge and skills for each program objective.

Successful candidates will pass the final examination, which assesses the candidate’s knowledge and skills for each program objective.

Domain 1: Leadership

This domain relates to leading the safety programs and initiatives within the aviation function staying current in professional knowledge.

Objective 1: Model and promote a positive organizational culture that fosters safety practices through effective leadership and communication.

i. Reinforce a “just” culture environment, where employees can report honest errors without fear of retribution

ii. Build and maintain an excellent working relationship with all employees within the aviation department, including the accountable executive and the overall company safety organization.

iii. Model safe ethical behaviors, procedural compliance and non-punitive safety reporting environment.

iv. Recognize and reward safe behaviors, actions and procedural compliance by all employees.

Objective 2: Effectively engage relevant safety stakeholders to identify and address safety issues.

i. Develop and lead a safety team to monitor the safety management system (SMS) as appropriate for the size and complexity of the operation.

ii. Conduct professional safety meetings on a regular basis.

Objective 3: Keep abreast of safety-related activity and changes from government, international organization and industry organization sources (e.g. ICAO, FAA, NTSB, NBAA, OSHA, etc.).

i. Monitor the industry for safety concerns and regulatory requirements that could affect the organization.

ii. Attend or support participation in aviation and non-aviation industry safety support meetings.

iii. Stay connected to industry initiatives and organizations and communicate these initiatives to their organization.

iv. Benchmark with other business aviation operators to stay current on evolving best practices.

Domain 2: Safety Policy

This domain relates to the need to understand the components of a safety policy and how it contributes to the overall success of the SMS.

Objective 1: Establish management commitment to safety performance through SMS.

i. Advise the director of aviation and accountable executive on challenges, successes and progress towards continuous improvement regarding operational safety.

ii. Document and publish executive management and aviation leadership’s commitment to safety through a written safety policy statement in the department’s operations manual.

Objective 2: Define methods, processes, procedures and organizational structure needed to meet safety objectives

i. Develop, implement and administer safety policies and associated recordkeeping systems, keeping them up-to-date with current industry trends and statistics.

ii. Coordinate action, as required, on all submitted Safety – Security – QA Reports, Risk Assessment Reports, FOM Deviation Reports, Change Management Reports and Internal Audit Reports.

iii. Coordinate with HR and the leadership team to define the rules and procedures regarding rule violations and disciplinary procedures.

Domain 3: Safety Risk Management

This domain addresses methods of hazard identification, risk assessment and risk management.

Objective 1: Administer a reporting system for collecting, analyzing and communicating safety data from multiple sources.

i. Identify hazards, assess risks and implement risk mitigation measures as needed.

ii. Support continuous improvement of the hazard identification and the safety risk assessment process.

Objective 2: Lead the safety risk management activities of the flight department.

i. Collaborate with leadership and safety team to identify medium to high safety risk profiles (SRP’s) that directly affect the organization and apply mitigations to reduce the risk as low as reasonably practical (ALARP).

ii. Support risk assessment tools such as safety risk assessments, FRAT, MRAT, Change Management, Policy Waivers / FOM Deviation.

iii. Lead investigations, root cause analysis and reports on incidents/accidents and make risk mitigation/elimination recommendations.

Domain 4: Safety Assurance

This domain measures the effectiveness of the SMS.

Objective 1: Ensure compliance with internal SOPs and applicable local, state, federal and international regulations as they pertain to the SMS.

i. Establish and administer an internal safety audit program that, at regular intervals, assures compliance with established safety SOPs and regulatory requirements.

ii. Administer and liaison with industry-recognized, external auditors to provide unbiased audits of adherence to department policy and regulatory requirements.

Objective 2: Establish clear safety performance indicators (SPIs), safety performance targets (SPTs) and manage to those objectives.

i. Collaborate with relevant safety stakeholders to establish meaningful and realistic SPIs and SPTs specific to the department’s safety risk profile.

ii. Develop the process and methodology to track progress and performance to the established SPIs and SPTs.

Objective 3: Evaluate the effectiveness of risk control and risk management strategies, identifying methods/opportunities for improving safety and minimizing risk.

i. Analyze collected data from all safety data reporting sources to identify developing trends, conditions or situations that may indicate a need for refinement of procedures to enhance safety.

ii. Monitor, track, analyze and report on performance for agreed-upon SPIs and SPTs. Based upon the results, reevaluate SPIs and SPTs effectiveness and adjust as necessary.

iii. Continuously assesses the effectiveness of communication channels to ensure the highest level of safety communication.

Domain 5: Safety Promotion

This domain relates to promoting the SMS and a positive safety culture through education and communication.

Objective 1: Establish an effective communication process to share safety-related information.

i. Support transparency of safety issues with the goal of sharing safety issues with the entire aviation department.

ii. Communicate industry events and related safety issues.

iii. Identify and communicate internal and external sources of safety knowledge/information to all members of the organization.

Objective 2: Determine the appropriate safety training needs for all employees of the aviation department.

i. Establish annual safety training appropriate for each employee of the aviation department.

ii. Support the development and implementation of human factors, organizational factors, distraction management and fatigue risk management tools and training.

Objective 3: Act as an information conduit to bring safety issues to the attention of management and to deliver safety information to the organization’s staff, contractors and stakeholders.

i. Provide and articulate information regarding safety issues within the organization.

ii. Coordinate internal and external safety-related surveys that assess the safety culture and safety knowledge level of the aviation team.

Objective 4: Promote safety through positive safety recognition programs and practices that encourage reporting of errors and near misses.

i. Lead the safety recognition program. Coordinate support and recognition by and from senior and executive leadership.
ii. Proudly communicate positive safe actions by all aviation employees through announcements, newsletters and award programs.

Domain 6: Emergency Response

This domain relates to the oversight of emergency procedures and the emergency response training and planning process.

Objective 1: Manage the emergency response plan (ERP) document to current industry standards

i. Develop and maintain an emergency response plan that addresses aircraft accident, fire, bomb threat, terrorist, hijack, severe weather, etc.

ii. Benchmark with other business aviation operators to stay current on evolving emergency response best practices.

Objective 2: Ensure aviation department personnel are properly trained and remain current on annual emergency training requirements.

i. Conduct annual ERP training (i.e. emergency response exercise) that includes internal and external resources.

ii. Conduct annual emergency evacuation drills.

iii. Coordinate aircraft emergency equipment and evacuation procedures training for flight department members and executives.

Objective 3: Ensure written procedures clearly define detailed steps and procedures in the event of an aircraft accident/incident.

i. Develop and implement procedures and responsibilities related to liaison with FAA/NTSB, insurance agencies and international organizations as appropriate (e.g. AAIB) during an aircraft accident investigation.

ii. Partner with internal and external resources to establish explicit procedures for communication with family members and the media.