At the Air Charter Safety Foundation, we spend a lot of time talking about Safety Management Systems (SMS). They are, after all, one of the most important tools an operator will develop to create a proactive safety culture.
In a recent article by aviation safety leader and pilot, Kodey Bogart, raised an uncomfortable truth: sometimes SMS becomes more about appearance than action.
The article defines this as the illusion of safety – when policies, manuals, and procedures exist mainly to “check the box” for auditors or regulators, rather than drive safer decisions day-to-day.
The article comments on certain situations we’ve likely all come across:
- Manuals that sit on a shelf instead of being referenced
- Training that meets minimum standards without real understanding
- Hazard reports submitted but never truly addressed
“When team members and leadership believe that safety is being ‘handled’ simply because systems are in place, they may overlook latent hazards, ignore cultural red flags, and assume a level of risk control that doesn’t actually exist.”
As our single focus at ACSF is safety, we couldn’t agree more. True safety isn’t about the creation of nicely laminated binders or dashboard graphs alone. It’s about culture – the lived behaviors, open communication, and ownership at every level of an organization.
We encourage our members to evaluate their safety initiatives on a regular basis and to ask questions like: Is your SMS an active, breathing part of daily operations, or has it become an administrative task?
Here are a few reminders to keep your SMS real:
- Integrate safety discussions into every department meeting
- Treat manuals as living documents to update and use
- Make sure hazard reports result in action
- Empower every employee to speak up – without fear
“True safety is lived, not laminated.”
While writing an SMS is a key and important part of the safety process, it should be seen as the guiding document to living and working with a safety and Just Culture.
For some, writing it down makes it “real.” At ACSF, we encourage every member of the organization to live, work and operate in the safety culture together – closing the gap between what’s written and what’s real.
The article is certainly worth the read to discover how even well documented safety policies can lead to complacency and often just “check the compliance box” instead of internalized by the ream.
