Effectiveness of Safety Management Systems of two helicopter operators

The objective of this study is to determine whether there is any impact in implanting a Safety Management System in helicopter operations. The function of the system is to assist managers: to analyse, to develop, to communicate and to monitor safety at workplace. This paper will outline one important area critical to aviation safety, the new 'safety health' concepts being applied to improve the safety of world aviation. This study will examine the perception of the importance of safety issue at two organizations, one organization already has a safety management system implanted and the other has yet to introduce one into their organization. Although both companies have to follow the Malaysia Department of Civil Aviation regulatory requirement to manage their own helicopter operations it is imperative to note that a safety management system could further enhance the aviation safety standards. Fundamentally the system is to build or maintain a positive safety culture. Dr. James Reason Model is used to develop the safety management process. Reason acknowledges that each of the organisational, workplace and person/team components of his model is difficult to identify before an accident. This is because latent failures arc usually unforeseeable, workplace factors are dynamic, and errors or violations are unpredictable. The model implies that the integrity of safety defences can be more accurately determined. Rather than waiting for accident to occur, the Safety Management program provides a structured method for helicopter operators to proactively evaluate potential defence failures on a regular basis. In order to determine safety management system effectiveness an alternative method is used. Normally audits are carried out to measure and evaluate a system, however this method can be counter productive where accident frequency is very low or non existent especially in a helicopter operations. In this study the perception survey method is used to assess the success of the operator safety programme. The survey begins with a short demographic survey, typically question about their employee level, their general work location, and their function. The second part of the survey consists of questions designed to uncover employee perception about safety. The finding of the survey shows that staff do operate unsafely due to peer pressure or management pressure to complete tasks. The overall picture is, operator with a safety management system in place exhibit higher perceived hazardous condition and likelihood of accident. This positive safety attitude in the workplace can reduce accidents and even could prevent one. It is clear that consistent communication of safety related information within an organization is crucial for improving staff attitude toward safety. While the MASrS program has only been applied within one regional helicopter operators, the process is sufficiently simple and flexible to be applied to other operator as well as other industries. Department of Civil Aviation has

Text 115150.pdf Download (3MB) Official URL or Download Paper: http://ethesis.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/18226

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