The FAA and Building a Safety Culture

Episode 57

The FAA’s role in flight safety has evolved over the years. This episode covers the Safety Management System (SMS), the potential expansion into charter aviation, and the value of building a safety culture in all types of aviation. Aspects of FAA operations – past, present and future – are discussed.

The episode continues a conversation with John Allen, Manager at Allen and Associates Consulting, LLC. His expertise includes the military, airline industry and FAA.

Allen reflects on his time at JetBlue and the focused effort to implement SMS there. The culture changes brought with that process made it a better organization for safety, operational discipline, and risk management.

“Just culture,” a concept that emphasizes that mistakes are not solely brought about by the person or persons directly involved, also gets a look. In a just culture, after an incident, the question asked is, “What went wrong?” rather than “Who caused the problem?” A just culture is the opposite of a blame culture, which has been especially prevalent in aircraft maintenance operations.

Flight Safety Detectives is sponsored by Avemco Insurance. Mention the Flight Safety Detectives podcast and receive a 5% discount!

Photo: Matthew G. Bisanz