Paris (France), 12 June, 2009 – Today, 25 officers from 15 States and six representatives from two International Organizations passed the final examination of the latest International Civil Aviation Organization State Safety Programme (SSP) Implementation Course held at the Paris-based ICAO EUR/NAT Regional Office from 9 to 12 June 2009.

The SSP courses are aimed at providing practical guidance on how to implement the key elements of the ICAO SSP Programme which include a State’s regulation for an SSP, the establishment of acceptable level of safety (ALOs) at a State level and an SSP implementation plan.

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The Course was held by Captain Miguel Ramos (Technical Officer, Integrated Safety Management (ISM) Section from the ICAO HQ in Montréal supported by another worldwide kown safety expert, Michel Béland (former ICAO Safety Officer).

Under the ICAO concept, a State Safety Program (SSP) consists of an integrated set of regulations and specific activities aimed at improving safety and the establishment of a national acceptable level of Safety.

In order to manage safety at a national level, States shall require, as part of their SSP that service providers, aircraft operators and maintenance organizations implement a safety management system (SMS) acceptable to the State authority which is also responsible for the acceptance and oversight of service provider’s SMS.

SMS is a systematic approach to managing safety, including the necessary organizational structures, accountabilities, policies and procedures. SMS shall as a minimum: identify safety “hazards”, ensure the implementation of remedial action necessary to maintain agreed safety performance, ensure continuous monitoring and regular assessment of the safety performance and aim at a continuous improvement of the overall performance of the safety management system.

Indeed, safety management principles affect most activities of a civil aviation oversight authority, starting with rulemaking and policy development. However, rather than pursuing the causes of the most recent accident (traditional safety approach), the State Safety Programme (SSP) rulemaking stemming from the ICAO Safety framework shall be based on comprehensive analyses of the State’s aviation system. Regulations are based on identified hazards and analysis of the safety risks of the consequences of hazards. ICAO introduced the requirements for an SSP in Annex 6 — Operation of Aircraft, Part I — International Commercial Air Transport — Aeroplanes, and Part III — International Operations — Helicopters, Annex 11 — Air Traffic Services, and Annex 14 — Aerodromes, Volume I — Aerodrome Design and Operations in November 2006. The Organization will extend the concept and requirement to Annex 1 – Personnel licensing, Annex 8 – Airworthiness of aircraft and Annex 13 – Aircraft accident and incident investigation becoming effective in November 2010 .

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In developing the SSP requirements, it was anticipated that the safety management principles provide a conceptual platform for parallel development between the SSP by the State and the Safety Management Systems (SMS) by service providers and operators. An SSP developed from, and based upon safety management principles becomes the bridge that closes a gap that would otherwise inevitably develop between the internal and external safety processes at the civil aviation oversight authority and the internal safety processes of service providers and or operators.

As part of the SSP, the State promulgates SMS requirements for service providers obliging the latter to demonstrate their safety management capability up front, rather than waiting for accidents, incidents, or non-compliance with safety standards. This allows both the civil aviation oversight authority and service providers to get ahead of safety risks. SMS requirements under the SSP also provide a structured framework allowing the civil aviation oversight authority and service providers to interact more effectively in the resolution of safety concerns. In this way the shared, interactive nature of the civil aviation oversight authority SSP and service providers SMS comes to fruition.