New FAA, OSHA Policy Aims to Protect Aircraft Cabin Crew Members

Aug 23, 2013      OSHA will be able to enforce some safety and health standards not currently covered by FAA oversight.

The Federal Aviation Administration and OSHA have jointly issued a final policy for improving workplace safety for aircraft cabin crew members, agreeing to share enforcement in the skies. FAA’s aviation safety regulations take precedence, but OSHA will be able to enforce certain safety and health standards FAA currently does not cover.

“Safety is our number one priority, for both the traveling public and the dedicated men and women who work in the transportation industry,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “It’s important that cabin crew members on our nation’s airlines benefit from OSHA protections, including information about potential on-the-job hazards and other measures to keep them healthy and safe.”

His DOL counterpart, Secretary Thomas Perez, said the policy “shows the strength of agencies working together and will enhance the safety of cabin crew members and passengers alike. “It is imperative that cabin crew members have the same level of safety assurances they provide the public.”

The FAA news release said aircraft cabin safety issues that fall under OSHA standards include information on hazardous chemicals, exposure to bloodborne pathogens, hearing conservation programs, recordkeeping, and access to employee exposure and medical records. The agencies will develop procedures to ensure that OSHA does not apply requirements that could harm aviation safety. “Our cabin crewmembers contribute to the safe operation of every flight each day,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. “We’re taking an important step toward establishing procedures for resolving cabin crew workplace health and safety concerns.

“We look forward to working with the FAA and through our alliance with the aviation industry and labor organizations to improve the safety of cabin crewmembers,” said Dr. David Michaels, OSHA’s assistant secretary.

The FAA and OSHA announcement is here

 

Aviation Fatigue Risk Management integration with Jeppesen CrewAlert

FRMS Integration

Fatigue has been cited as a contributing factor in aviation accidents. Therefore, a robust Safety Management System (SMS) must take fatigue into account. Capturing and analyzing data within the SMS provides tangible evidence to both airlines and pilots on the effect of fatigue.

An effective Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) will rely on a culture that encourages reporting of observed hazards during operations. Under this culture, the pilot will be comfortable feeding back information on their performance during a flight. The analysis of the data captured provides information to the airline operations department, allowing them to proactively manage the impact of fatigue and adjust their recommendations for flying hours and rest times. This analytical, proactive approach to fatigue risk management builds on the same principles as those applied to SMS.

Ideagen Gael have partnered with Jeppesen, (Press release) a unit of Boeing Flight Services, to provide airlines with a new automated solution to report crew fatigue. CrewAlert, an iPhone application built on the Boeing Alertness Model (BAM), has been designed to help airlines and their crews manage alertness and fatigue. Through the partnership, CrewAlert is able to automatically submit crew fatigue reports directly into Ideagen Gael’s Q-Pulse product. This co-ordination allows airlines to create safety reports that aid root cause analysis when working to reduce crew fatigue

Aviation Document Management

Aviation Document Management

Whether you are flight crew, an aircraft engineer or ground staff, it’s imperative that the day to day use of circulated documentation must be accurate, up to date and accessible in order to achieve compliance standards set by aviation regulators.

A SMS Information Management solution Document Management provides a central storage for all controlled documents and associated records. Any documentation type, such as user manuals, company processes and procedures and associated supporting material, are fully supported.

Staff can be confident that they are accessing the latest version of any given document through their PC or mobile device at anytime, and in any place.

A SMS Information Management solution prevents the use of incorrect documents and always presents the most current approved revision to users. Documents are securely managed to prevent uncontrolled modifications, drafts or copies. Records pertaining to document change, history, approval and distribution are securely held for each revision of a document and are readily available for review. Document registers are automatically updated with approved changes, helping to eliminate the risk of human error.

The fundamental benefit of the Document Management module is its flexibility and capability. It dramatically reduces the bureaucratic burden of compliance management and provides an infrastructure to make the correct information available where needed. The module allows for efficient and effective change control and effortlessly demonstrates compliance to your management system. Significantly, it facilitates collective ownership of the management system within the organization.

The objectives for Document Management are to:

  • Make the correct information available at the point of need, when required
  • Encourage ownership of the compliance management system across an organization
  • Effectively manage change from an initial request, through drafting, approval, distribution and publishing
  • Contribute to more effective use of management system information
  • Reduce the bureaucracy of managing document control within a compliance management environment
  • Extend the accessibility of controlled documents throughout the organization and beyond via a secure web interface

Corrective/Preventative Action Management

Corrective/Preventative Action Management

Q-Pulse manages non-conformance through the CA/PA, (Corrective Action/Preventative Action) module, by automating established workflows and highlighting areas of improvement. Any type of aviation organization can identify, manage, control and correct areas of non-compliance in order to correct and pass any type of regulatory requirements.

Direct access to compliance actions from a central register streamlines the management of processes, reducing the effort spent managing activities and accelerating time to completion for actions. Role-based message management closes the loop on overdue processes by enabling the conditional escalation of actions to other roles where required, and the setup of different workflows based on record content.

Once collected in the CA/PA Management module, information can be viewed in isolation, either in groups of related information or across the complete organization. Robust security allocates access to information as you require it.

Any number of reports can be published and saved in personal or shared folders which significantly reduce the amount of time and effort spent searching for information. In addition, the Analysis module provides extensive graphical grouping and trend reports that greatly assist in spotting related issues and more importantly help identify opportunities for improvement.

The flexibility and capability of the CA/PA Management module ensures Q-Pulse is core in enabling an organization to reap significant benefits from their compliance efforts.

The objectives for CA/PA Management are to:

  • Automate the non-conformance process for the business within a single system
  • Extend the non-conformance process throughout a business with a centralized approach
  • Promote a systematic and holistic approach to non-conformance management
  • Notify and manage those responsible for non-conformances that in turn promote reduction in recurrence
  • Streamline non-conformance management to increase stakeholder satisfaction and improve the bottom line

Norcal Business Aviation Association (NCBAA) Safety Day Event in San Jose May 2 featured Dr Tony Kern on Professionalism in Aviation

Dr. Tony Kern is the CEO of Convergent Performance; a small, veteran owned “think tank” formed in 2004 and dedicated to reducing human error and improving performance in high risk environments such as aviation,military, healthcare and firefighting. Tony is one of the world’s leading authorities on human performance, has lectured on the subjects of applied human factors and performance improvement for nearly two decades, and is the author of seven books on the subject’

The Norcal Business Aviation Association (NCBAA) members were presented to a day of discussion about Professionalism in Aviation with topics like :

  • The Readiness Equation
  • The Baseline of Readiness: The Mind-Body Link
  • Lifelong Readiness: Continuous Improvement and Deliberate Practice
  • Level III Professionalism

We highly recommend Dr. Tony Kern’s insights for all aviation professionals

 

Sextant Readings Solutions – aviation professionals with focus on Compliance, Quality Management and Quality Assurance, Safety and Risk Management for the Aviation Industry, is an IS-BAO Support Services Affiliate and IS-BAO safety consultant and Auditor

Heli-Expo 2013 Safety Challenge provides insight into safety issues

The Heli-Expo 2013 Safety Challenge provided insights into all aspects of Safety Management from Safety Culture and leadership through Flight Operations and Maintenance to safety analysis and preventative actions.

Well received by al attendees, the Safety Challenge attendance reflects the growing interest in all things related to Safety.

As SMS consultants, auditors (IS-BAO) and solution providers, we extend our thanks to HAI for creating the Safety challenge and for its choice of speakers who imparted their knowledge.

As helicopter organizations begin to implement safety management programs, we support the industry with expertise, leading-edge solutions, mobile safety management access, and integration of FOQA and FRMS to support your safety culture. If we can help you, please call us at 415 689 4SMS or visit us at www.sextantreadings.com.

Proud members of HAI

Proud members of HAI