It should come as no surprise that one of the most crucial elements of a safety management system (SMS) is safety risk management (SRM). SRM is a process by which an organization identifies hazards, assesses the risks associated with those hazards, and then mitigates those risks so that they are as low as reasonably practicable. Mitigation can range from eliminating the hazard (and its associated risks) in its entirety to accepting the hazard and putting in place controls to minimize the risks associated with it.
Effective SRM can reduce the likelihood of incidents and accidents and make an organization safer, with a corresponding increase in return on investment and a reduction in potential litigation exposure. Although SRM is a process that is “in place” in many aviation organizations, many safety managers still struggle with the concept.
Let’s start with a simple example of how the SRM process should work. But before we look at the example, it’s important to understand…
