The aviation industry has made flying one of the safest means of transportation in the world. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has continued over decades to ensure that aviation remains safe. One of the basic resources is the safety management system. Over the years as a safety management system is being implemented at airports, they have gradually built a safety culture. It is such that safety is not only for those who are in the forefront such as safety auditors but also for those who have imbibed the safety culture working in various places in the airport in front of the passenger and behind the scenes.
All systems are composed of three basic elements which are: people, process and technology. Of these elements, people have remained very important in the safety management system. The aviation system has many subsystems such as environment, finance, safety and security. However, the greater aviation system is composed of safety and security of which the people element cannot be ignored.
In the evolution of safety, there have been four approaches which roughly align with different eras of activity. The technical approach was from the 1900s until late 1960s. During this era aviation had become used for mass transportation. Deficiencies which related to safety were identified in the form of technical factors and technological failures. Technological improvements by the 1950s had led to a gradual decline in the frequency of accidents such that safety processes were now widened to cover regulatory compliance and oversight.
From the early 1970s there was a remarkable decline in the frequency of accidents such that by the 1990s it was obvious that human factors were an important contributor to safety. People operate in a complex environment and there are multiple factors in the environment that could affect their behaviour.
During the mid-1990s another era of safety unfolded. Safety began to be viewed from a systemic perspective and it began to cut across organisational factors such as human and technical factors. There was emphasis on organisational culture, policies, safety data collection and analysis, among others.
The twenty-first century welcomed the Total System era. The total system safety approach considers the entire aviation industry as a system. Those who provide service, as well as their system for managing safety, are considered as subsystems. In this way an airport will keep an eye on interactions, and cause and effect, throughout the whole system.
In an environment that has an entrenched safety culture, there is collective decision making between managers and employees. Other signposts are that individuals and groups can continuously critique the system in place. There is common awareness of hazards and risks at the airport so that individuals make decisions according to a common belief. In this regard there is no ambiguity over safety and the tone at the top is such that individuals value information as well as informing others about safety. They also will be encouraged to report errors and they can trust their fellow workers and their organisation with information relating to their experiences.
So, safety in the aviation industry is for everyone who is a member of the airport community. A properly entrenched safety culture is important and holds value that can be seen in losses averted and improved revenue from the confidence of passengers in the airport. Everyone behind the scene gains where there is a safety culture.
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