Safety Assurance
Liberty University
AVIA 409 - Safety Management Systems
Professor: Andrew Walton
2022
Definitions
Safety assurance - all planned and systematic actions necessary to afford adequate confidence that
a product, a service, an organisation or a functional system achieves acceptable or tolerable safety.
(Commission Regulation (EU) 1035/2011);
Safety assurance - Processes within the SMS that function systematically to ensure the
performance and effectiveness of safety risk controls and that the organization meets or exceeds its
safety objectives through the collection, analysis, and assessment of information. (FAA AC No: 120-92B,
Safety Management Systems for Aviation Service Providers).
Description
Safety assurance activities are at the core of the safety management system (SMS) that aviation
service providers (including aircraft operators) shall implement in order to meet ICAO SARPS and
regulatory requirements. Safety assurance includes organisational arrangements and systematic
processes for continuous surveillance and recording of the organisation’s safety performance, as well as
evaluation of the safety management processes and practices. Safety assurance is the means to
demonstrate that organisational arrangements and processes for safety achievement are properly
applied and continue to achieve their intended objectives.
Safety Assurance should be intrusive and enquiring and not simply an administrative "box ticking"
exercise.
SMS Safety Assurance Components identified by ICAO
According to the ICAO Doc 9859 - Safety Management Manual, safety assurance includes the following
activities:
Safety performance monitoring and measurement - aircraft operators/service providers shall
develop and maintain the means to verify that the safety performance of the organisation
complies with the safety policy and objectives, and to validate the effectiveness of safety risk
management. This is achieved by monitoring and measuring the outcomes of activities that
operational personnel must engage in for the delivery of services by the organisation.
Management of change - the aviation service provider organisation shall develop and maintain a
formal process to identify and manage the changes within the organisation which may affect
established processes, procedures, products and services. The management of change should
ensure that required safety performance is achieved by reducing or eliminating the safety risks
resulting from the changes in the organisation, the provision of services or in the operational
environment.
Continuous improvement of the SMS - the aviation service provider organisation shall develop
and maintain a formal process to identify the causes of sub-standard performance of the SMS,
determine the implications of sub-standard performance in operations, and eliminate such
causes.
SMS Safety Assurance Components in ATM
The European Commission has adopted Regulation 1035/2011 laying down common requirements for
the provision of air navigation services transposing EUROCONTROL ESARR3 into EU law. The Regulation
specifies further the ICAO provisions in relation to ATM and identifies the following safety assurance
components:
Safety Surveys - shall be carried out as a matter of routine, to recommend improvements where
needed, to provide assurance to managers of the safety of activities within their areas and to
confirm conformance with applicable parts of their safety management systems;
Safety Monitoring - shall ensure that methods are in place to detect changes in systems or
operations which may suggest any element is approaching a point at which acceptable
standards of safety can no longer be met, and that corrective action is taken;
Safety Records - shall be maintained throughout the SMS operation as a basis for providing
safety assurance to all associated with, responsible for or dependent upon the services
provided, and to the safety regulatory authority. Safety records include all documentation
produced and maintained throughout the operation of the SMS processes, including the risk
assessment and mitigation documentation.
Regulatory Safety Assurance Activities
Regulators should continuously evaluate the implemented safety management arrangements and
processes by aviation service providers by means of external regulatory safety auditing and other safety
oversight methodologies.
