Aviation is highly recognized throughout the transportation sector and has been utilized by millions of people to travel to various destinations over the years. There has been a huge growth in traffic, as well as many service providers entering the aviation market. As a result, various governments throughout the world are working hard to ensure that their skies are extremely secure.
Gold Coast is a newly independent island nation that has sought to and been recognized as a signatory member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAO, one of the United Nations agencies, has certain set aviation standards to make certain that each member state realizes its obligation to maintain security to the highest possible degree (ICAO, 2013). Annex 19 of ICAO, puts some obligations on any contracting nations to implement a State Safety Programme (SSP). ICAO defines State Safety Programme (SSP) as a joint set of rules and activities aimed at boosting safety (Kim et al., 2013). In the case of Gold Coast, I would develop a correspondent SSP, whose main aim is to gradually evolve and construct an SSP that is in line with the Annex 19.
Gold Coast being a state that just attained independence has great potential and many service providers will want to tap into this opportunity. For this reason, developing an SSP for Gold Coast is a matter of urgency. According to Kim et al. (2013), an SSP is of prime importance as it recognizes that a state and its service providers have a safety obligation. The SSP outlines a guideline within which every service provider is required to create safety management systems (SMS). Take for instance Gold Coast; a region with beaches and nice luxurious hotels; this means that the region could be a tourist attraction especially during the summer. With many people visiting Gold Coast, the State becomes a region that is rich in resources for safety.
Elements of SSP
Investigation of any Accident and Incident
Gold Coast will put in place an independent team to conduct investigations in case of an accident or incident. The main aim of investigation is to ensure that everyone is held accountable for their actions. This will go a long way to prevent negligence and in the long run prevent accidents and incidents. These investigations will be in support of aviation safety of the State. During SSP operations, Gold coast should uphold the organisation’s independence of the inquiries of the hazard from the other aviation organisations operating within the State.
If a State is able to discharge their own individual accident or incident investigations, then it is considered to have the resources. However, Gold Coast is a new nation and chances are that it does not have the necessary resources just yet. This could warrant Gold Coast to join or seek the services of a regional accident and incident investigation organisation (RAIO) as an alternative way of getting an independent accident or incident process of investigation (Maurino et al., 2017).
Safety Must-haves for the Service Supplier’s SMS
All service providers at Gold Coast will be governed by controls created by the state; the service providers are required to be in a position to pinpoint the hazards and manage risks involved in a safety process. These are the implementation policies, precise operation regulations and the necessities for the service supplier’s SMS; all these are reviewed periodically to make certain that amidst changing times, the controls will remain relevant for the state and service providers.
Provision of Internal Training about Safety
It is of essence to sensitize the State on matters of safety. A State should create awareness and ensure there is a two way constant flow of safety- relevant information between them and the local aviation organisation ( ICAO, 2013).Adopting such a culture will eventually yield to an efficient and functional SSP. The regulatory bodies of Gold Coast and all other aviation sectors within the State should work hand in hand to reduce the risks to an acceptable level or eliminate them totally if possible. To achieve this, it is imperative that there is a joint approach to their respective duties. With this, Gold Coast will never have to deal with recurrent issues of conflicting oversight criteria or a mismatch in the SMS requirements in the various aviation organisations (Maurino et al., 2017)
Exterior Broadcasting of Safety Information
In this kind of training, the state should focus on sensitizing the various service providers on the safety risks. There should also be a two- way traffic flow of information to support and build a culture that will lead to efficient SMS. For instance, Gold Coast will come up with an integrated system where the various service providers for the aviation organisations in the state can easily communicate. Such an approach will make it easy for all the involved parties to share information on matters pertaining to SMS requirements; if either party has a question, a guidance material will answer him or her appropriately (ICAO, 2013).
Safety Oversight
Safety should be paramount to any State. For this reason, specific mechanisms will be put in place to make certain that all the crucial essentials of the safety oversight role are supervised closely and effectively. In this case, Gold Coast should aim at maintain a good profile as it is a nation that has not experienced hazards yet. In regards to this, there will be mechanisms put in place to ensure that safety hazards are easily identified and managed in accordance to the set regulatory controls; implementation policies, requirements and the specific operation regulations. Gold Coast will also hire an elite team that will help with the identification of hazards. This team will be using the three methodologies that have been used in previous years by other States. The reactive methodology that requires one to analyse the past safety risk events; this will help give the team a clear picture of what exactly went wrong and how such a mistake can be avoided in future. The proactive methodology will also be used; it requires one to analyse the existing or current situation. This will be done through carrying out audits, assessment processes, employee reports and general evaluations. The last methodology will be the predictive methodology which involves collection of data to identify a future risk or negative outcome (Parker & Evans, 2008). In Gold Coast’s case, the team will analyse the surroundings and systems processes and identify the potential future safety hazards. The team will then begin working on a plan to mitigate the problem. Implementation of all these elements will go a long way to reduce risks to an acceptable and also mitigate future risks; this will put Gold Coast at the top of its game on matters of aviation safety (Maurino et al., 2017).
References
Evans, A., & Parker, J. (2008). Beyond safety management systems. Aero Safety.
ICAO 2013. Safety Management Manual (SMM) [Online] (Available at
https://www.icao.int/safety/SafetyManagement/Documents/Doc.9859.3rd%20Edition.alltext.en.pdf [Accessed Sept. 14, 2017]
Kim, S., Oh, S., Suh, J., Yu, K., & Yeo, H. 2013. Study on the structure of safety performance
Publishing Limited.
Maurino, D. E., Reason, J., Johnston, N., & Lee, R. B. 2017. Beyond aviation human factors:
Safety in high technology systems. Routledge.
