Lessons from NATA’s Inaugural Ground Handling Safety Symposium Continued from page 47 responses sending people all over the room, even when prompted by seemingly uncontroversial messages. “One of the goals was to start with this really foundational understand- ing of what an SMS is, with a focus on ground handling, and what it can do when it’s properly implemented,” McCarthy said. “Everybody is coming at it from different angles, because there is a huge diversity of organiza- tions represented within the NATA membership and at the symposium; but the core of what we’re talking about here is raising the bar for every- body. It’s important to start by agree- ing on some terminology and getting everybody on board with some of the basics of the potential in creating and maintaining a really strong SMS.” Her company, Baldwin Safety & Compliance, was founded on the premise that “smaller flight depart- ments need and deserve the same level of resources, programs, services and safety management as their multinational counterparts.” Baldwin offers a variety of software products and programs to help clients meet and maintain regulatory compliance requirements, including the IS-BAH and IS-BAO standards. McCarthy said attendees at the Ground Handling Safety Symposium included some NATA members who are already IS-BAH certified, others who are just beginning the process, and still others who haven’t gotten there yet. To the latter, McCarthy thinks the pitch is straightforward. “A lot of ground handling incidents that occur can be traced back to a series of really small and seemingly inconsequential things leading up to an event where there is damage 48 to an aircraft or other equipment or injury to a person,” she said. “It’s almost never just one big colossal mistake,” McCarthy contin- ued. “A good SMS helps an orga- nization look closely at all those small details and creates a process for learning from the findings and putting mitigations in place so you never have those kinds of events. The benefits to that process can be enormously far-reaching. Reducing those costly incidents can have a pro- found impact on your organization. So many aspects of the business are impacted when there’s an incident: there can be a huge financial impact, there’s the potential for people to get injured, or for a client’s aircraft to get damaged, which impacts that client’s business and reflects on the ground handler’s reputation. Every incident, large or small, has all of these ripple effects when it happens, but it also turns out that nearly all of the incidents are entirely preventable. And developing a comprehensive SMS under the IS-BAH requirements is a really good way to do it. It has all positives. I think one of the real strengths of IS-BAH is that it puts a structure around all of that and provides a way for a ground handling business to demonstrate that they’re doing all the right things, taking all the right steps. Then, on the other side of it, when they can put up a sign that says they’re IS-BAH reg- istered and compliant, it becomes a symbol that automatically tells customers that there is a strong and audited safety program in place.” Mike France, NATA’s Managing Director for Safety & Training, revealed there are now close to 100 IS-BAH registered locations globally in the fifth year of implementation. “We’re very pleased with the uptick in IS-BAH registrations and we believe efforts like IS-BAH, the Safety 1st program, and the NATA Ground Handling Safety Symposium represent a global revolution in how our members and our industry pro- actively approach safety concerns,” France said. “It has really, rightfully, become the number one industry priority and something that we’re see- ing some of our biggest competitors collaborating on to continue to make real improvements. The results of that combination of factors have just been staggering in terms of industry- wide safety by every measure.” France believes those marked improvements are just the begin- ning, particularly with a strong NATA Safety Committee currently chaired by Bob Schick (Director of Safety & Risk Management at TAC Air) and Vic Gregg (Director Safety Standards & Audit at Universal Weather & Aviation Inc.). “As we look to the future of ground handling training with the updated NATA Safety 1st program rolling out in 2018 on the 10-year anniversary of the launch of our Safety 1st Professional Line Service Training Online, and with a contin- ued surge in IS-BAH registrations, I expect we’ll see even more progress in reducing incidents of every kind across our industry,” France said. “It’s really a tremendous oppor- tunity, and I’m proud to be work- ing closely with the NATA Safety Committee to make the most of it.” Aviation Business Journal | 4th Quarter 2017
