Safety Management in Cabin Operations

Addressing Cabin Operations as part of SSP & SMS

Annex 19 — Safety Management contains overarching provisions applicable to safety management functions related to, or in direct support of, the safe operation of aircraft. It contains Standards that mandate each State to implement a State safety programme (SSP) and for specific service providers, including aircraft operators authorized to conduct international commercial air transport, to implement a safety management system (SMS). The State’s SSP must encompass all areas that have an impact on operational safety; this includes cabin operations and cabin safety-related activities.

Cabin crew members also play an important proactive role in managing safety, including through the hazard identification and safety reporting, which can contribute to the prevention of incidents and accidents. It is important that cabin safety issues be addressed in the SSP to identify and assess the impact they may have on improving the State’s overall safety performance. As is the case with the SSP, it is also important that cabin safety issues be addressed in the SMS to identify and assess the impact they may have on the operator’s overall safety performance.

ICAO Guidance Material

ICAO developed the Manual on Safety Management in Cabin Operations (Doc 10158) to address the lack of high-level guidance on the application of safety management to cabin operations, and the need to address cabin operations in the broader context of safety management, at both the State and operator levels. It provides guidance related to the inclusion of cabin operations aspects within the SSP and SMS, is in line with ICAO provisions found in Annex 19, and complements the guidance contained in the Safety Management Manual (Doc 9859). This manual addresses the different aspects that a State should consider when establishing and improving its SSP, as well as when accepting and overseeing an operator’s SMS, to ensure both encompass cabin operations and cabin safety-related areas of commercial air transport as part of overarching safety management activities.

• The manual provides guidance on:
• The role of the State’s cabin safety inspectors within the SSP
• The use of reporting systems to capture issues related to cabin operations
• Means of writing meaningful reports
• The role of a positive safety culture in the level of reporting from cabin crew members
• Safety performance management within cabin operations
• The development of safety performance indicators (SPIs) and safety performance targets (SPTs) related to cabin safety for both the SSP and SMS

To obtain a copy of the ICAO Manual on Safety Management in Cabin Operations (Doc 10158), please visit here.