2120-AJ86 201410 The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions 2120 Federal Aviation Administration FAA 2100 Department of Transportation DOT Safety Management Systems for Certificate Holders

This rulemaking would require each certificate holder operating under 14 CFR part 121 to develop and implement a safety management system (SMS) to improve the safety of its aviation related activities. A safety management system is a comprehensive, process-oriented approach to managing safety throughout an organization. An SMS includes an organization-wide safety policy; formal methods for identifying hazards, controlling, and continually assessing risk and safety performance; and promotion of a safety culture. SMS stresses not only compliance with technical standards but increased emphasis on the overall safety performance of the organization. This rulemaking is required under Public Law 111-216, section 215.

]]> Other Significant Previously Published in The Unified Agenda Final Rule Stage No No 14 CFR 121 14 CFR 5 49 USC 106(g) 49 USC 40113 49 USC 40119 49 USC 41706 49 USC 44101 49 USC 44701 49 USC 44702 49 USC 44705 49 USC 44709 to 44711 49 USC 44713 49 USC 44716 49 USC 44717 49 USC 44722 49 USC 46105 PL 111-216, sec 215 Statutory NPRM 10/29/2010 NPRM Statutory Final 07/30/2012 Final Rule Congress passed Public Law 111-216 that instructs FAA to conduct a rulemaking to require all part 121 air carriers to implement a Safety Management System (SMS). This Act further states that the FAA shall consider at a minimum each of the following as part of the SMS rulemaking: (1) an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP); (2) a Flight Operations Quality Assurance Program (FOQA); (3) a Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA); and (4) an Advance Qualifications Program. Yes

This final rule requires each air carrier operating under 14 CFR part 121 to develop and implement a safety management system (SMS) to improve the safety of its aviation-related activities. SMS is a comprehensive, process-oriented approach to managing safety throughout an organization. SMS includes an organization-wide safety policy; formal methods for identifying hazards; controlling, and continually assessing risk and safety performance; and promotion of a safety culture. SMS stresses not only compliance with technical standards but also increased emphasis on the overall safety performance of the organization.

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The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) authority to issue rules on aviation safety is found in title 49 of the United States Code. This rulemaking is promulgated under the authority described in 49 U.S.C. 44701(a)(5), which requires the Administrator to promulgate regulations and minimum standards for other practices, methods, and procedures necessary for safety in air commerce and national security. In addition, the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010 (the Act), Public Law 111-216, section 215 (August 1, 2010), required the FAA to conduct rulemaking to require all 14 CFR part 121 air carriers to implement a safety management system. The Act required the FAA to issue this final rule within 24 months of the passing of the Act (July 30, 2012).

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To relieve the burden of this rule on small entities, the FAA considered extending the timeframe for development of SMS implementation plans. However, the FAA ultimately concluded that 1 year for the development and approval of implementation plans is appropriate. In making this determination, the FAA considered longer and shorter terms. However, it settled on 1 year based on information from the SMS Pilot Project, which showed that an average of 1 year was sufficient to develop and approve an implementation plan. As part of its analysis, the FAA noted that pilot project participants ultimately had differing levels of SMS implementation. However, because all pilot project participants had initially developed (and received FAA validation on) an implementation plan that provided for full SMS implementation, the FAA was able to use this data to estimate how long it would take a certificate holder to develop such a plan, and get the plan approved by the FAA.

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The FAA estimates the quantitative costs to be $135.1 million, and the quantitative benefits to be $142.8 million, with benefits exceeding costs.

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While the commercial air carrier accident rate in the United States has decreased substantially over the past 10 years, the FAA has identified a recent trend involving hazards that were revealed during accident investigations. The FAA's Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention identified 128 accidents involving part 121 air carriers from fiscal year (FY) 2001 through FY 2010 for which identified causal factors could have been mitigated if air carriers had implemented an SMS to identify hazards in their operations and developed methods to control the risk. This type of approach allows air carriers to anticipate and mitigate the likely causes of potential accidents. This is a significant improvement over current reactive safety action emphasis, which focuses on discovering and mitigating the cause of an accident only after that accident has occurred. In order to bring about this change in accident mitigation, as well as the other reasons discussed throughout this document, the FAA is requiring part 121 air carriers to develop and implement an SMS. SMS is a comprehensive, process-oriented approach to managing safety throughout an organization, and stresses not only compliance with technical standards, but increased emphasis on the overall safety performance of the organization. The potential reduction of risks would be averted causalities, aircraft damage, and accident investigation costs by identifying safety issues and spotting trends before they result in a near-miss, incident, or accident.

]]> NPRM 11/05/2010 75 FR 68224 NPRM Comment Period Extended 01/31/2011 76 FR 5296 NPRM Comment Period End 02/03/2011 Comment Period Extended 03/07/2011 Final Rule 11/00/2014 No Businesses Federal No No www.regulations.gov www.regulations.gov No No 2120-AJ15 Split from Scott VanBuren Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention 2120 Federal Aviation Administration FAA 202-494-8417 scott.vanburen@faa.gov 800 Independence Ave., SW, Washington DC 20591