In January 2009, when Armando Martinez became director of safety at Miami Air International, the safety management system (SMS) concept still was being refined, but already vendors were showing up at our door offering solutions. Working for a small air carrier, Martinez knew that we did not have unlimited dollars or time to throw at any problem, much less one that didn’t produce revenue, so he began to network with others from the industry and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to get their perspectives and to see what resources were available.
During the process, we learned several things. First, the FAA was looking for small carriers to volunteer to participate in the pilot program. Second, we already had a program to track accidents and incidents and it could be expanded to handle SMS requirements: the Aviation Safety Action Program Web-Based Application Tool (ASAP/WBAT) developed by Universal Technical Resource Services (UTRS). Last, the bond that would hold it all…
