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WORK SAFE By Zac Noble
If You See Something, Say Something Modern safety management empowers every employee to speak up.
Jimmy Doolittle was on loan from the US Army in 1926 to perform flight demonstrations in his P-1 Hawk biplane in South America, he broke his ankles in a barroom stunt. With both ankles in casts, Dolittle had his mechanic bolt them to the rudder pedals. The flight demonstrations went well, and Doolittle returned to the States to spend time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to mend from his antics. That’s one ver- sion of the story, at least, and one worthy of campfire folklore.
W
E’VE COME A LONG WAY MANAGING aviation safety since the early years. I read that when aviation pioneer
then managers didn’t balk. There was often an attempt to power through the situation. When all was good, such as in Doolittle’s stunt, the mechanic/engineer or pilot was hailed as a hero. If the attempt at safety failed, they
That puddle under the aircraft the flight nurse pointed out is probably water from the air-conditioning condenser, but what if it’s fuel?
In decades past, safety was a bottom-up approach: if the pilot or mechanic/engineer thought it reasonable,
were said to have made a poor decision. This haphazard approach to safety management was bad for everyone involved: companies, owners, shareholders, employees, pilots, and passengers alike. Fast-forward to 2020. The buzz term in aviation safety today is “safety management sys- tem,” or SMS. It’s centered around decision-making, process improve- ment, and a positive safety culture, and it employs a top-down AND bot- tom-up approach to managing safety. Top-down is important because for SMS to be effective, an organization must have a positive safety culture, something that can’t be done without the buy-in of senior leadership. Everyone from the CEO down must endorse the company’s commitment to safety and a just culture. When the going gets rough—when the pilot turns down a flight because of weather or a mechanic/engineer grounds an aircraft—it’s crucial that management back their decisions. Ensuring flight safety must be priori- tized over the company’s bottom line. The bottom-up part of SMS comes in because it recognizes that safety isn’t just the responsibility of the pilot, the safety director, or any one person: it’s everyone’s job. SMS requires open
74 ROTOR WINTER 2020
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