HELICOPTER FACTS

Contact:Tony Molinaro

Phone:(847) 294-7427

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Four “Cornerstones” Can Anchor a Safety Culture

Building an organizational culture that focuses first on safety saves lives, prevents injuries, protects future revenue, and eliminates the expenses of damaged equipment. This safety culture can be developed in both large and small organizations if emphasis is placed in a few core areas of a helicopter operation.

These core areas, or “cornerstones,” that can strengthen a safety culture are:

  • safety management systems,
  • training,
  • maintenance,
  • and advanced systems and equipment.

Implementing a safety management system(SMS) represents a fundamental shift in the way an organization does business. Safety management systems require organizations to adopt and actively manage safety elements and to incorporate them into everyday business practices. In effect, safety becomes an integral part of the everyday operations of an organization and is no longer considered an adjunct function belonging to a single safety “overseer.” Everyone in the operation is responsible to discover, analyze and correct safety practices, which spreadsresponsibility throughout an organization.

In addition, the success of a safety management system hinges on the development of a “just” safety culture that promotes open reporting through non-punitive disciplinary policies and continual improvement through proactive safety assessments and quality assurance.IHST tools that support asafety management system include a SMS toolkit and video, a risk assessment matrix, and a preflight risk assessment tool.

Ongoing and effective training is another cornerstone needed in order to build a thriving safety culture. IHST tools and materials that can support continual instruction and development include aeronautical decision making, crew resource management, recognition and avoidance involving meteorological conditions, fatigue countermeasure training, and night vision goggles training. Other supporting pieces to improve training include a European training pamphlet, aU.S. training toolkit, HAI safety videos, a European Flight Into Degraded Visual Environment DVD, and aLow Flying in the Wired Environment DVD.

Properly maintaining a helicopter contributes just as much to a safety culture as flying a helicopter. IHST support within the cornerstone of maintenance includes a recently developed maintenance toolkit, materials on manufacturers’ instructions for continued airworthiness, on quality assurance procedures, on a health and usage monitoring system, and on an engine monitoring system.

The final cornerstone, advance systems and equipment,calls for the utilization of technology that requires an upfront investment, but will realize bottom line savings. The IHST recommends the usage of tools that are focused on eliminating accidents, including flight data monitoring systems, a helicopter flight analysis profile tool, night vision goggles, a helicopter terrain awareness and warning system, an emergency medical services weather tool, point in space approaches, the Wide Area Augmentation System, and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast technology.

Information about these cornerstone areas, the IHST, its reports, and its safety tools, can be found on the IHST web site: (