A colleague of mine forwarded me a link to an interesting documentary that was broadcast recently, which examined the Canadian regulator’s implementation of SMS.

 

It suggests that Transport Canada (TC) have implemented SMS at the same as cutting the number of safety inspectors carrying out audits and inspections – implying that TC has adopted SMS as a cost cutting initiative. Transport Canada get lots of praise for being an early sponsor of SMS, but cutting inspectors at the same time seems crazy.

 

Whilst the larger carriers are successfully embracing SMS, It's unbelievable that smaller airlines aren’t yet mandated by SMS and don't get the same level of oversight as before either. They are operating in an oversight black whole.

 

But perhaps there is a wider issue here as to why these smaller airlines don’t implement SMS – I’m assuming it’s cost/resource based. In my view, this is a short-sighted strategy. SMS shouldn’t just be about preventing accidents as, done properly, it can highlight areas of the operation that require training, pinpoint improvement areas and improve operational readiness overall.

 

I’d be interested to know if anyone has a view of what other barriers to SMS implementation exist for smaller operators.