An approach to Safety Management System (SMS) implementation in aircraft operations

Abstract

Each year a large number of approach and landing accidents occur worldwide. Safety statistics of commercial airline operators show that on average there is almost one occurrence every week. Each year there is also a number of approach and landing accidents that resulted in third party damage and injuries on the ground. To operators it is therefore interesting to know how big their risk is and what possible actions could be taken to reduce this risk. The paper defines analytical tool intended to provide a sound, technically justifiable and consistent approach to analyzing the risk posed by an aircraft crash into a facility of importance during the approach and landing phase. This analytical approach is applicable to passenger terminals, Air Traffic Control (ATC) control towers, all facilities containing dangerous goods, etc. Presented methodology takes into consideration items determined to be important to understanding the risk from aircraft crash into certain facilities: number of aircraft operations/flights; crash probabilities; aircraft characteristics; facility characteristics; crash impact and facility damage. The simple case for airport with one runway was chosen. The result gives two risk roses (contours) for each threshold where each of them determines different risk zones on airport vicinity. Key words: Safety management system, risk, aircraft, landing.