Integration of an Active STPA into Safety Management Systems

All aviation organizations in the world are preparing to cope with the new ICAO standards for Safety Management System Safety. Managers are working on Safety Performance Indicators to evaluate deviations from the ideal operation. Most of these indicators are reactive because they measure parameter exceedances. A new tool is required to guide safety managers on the identification of proactive indicators. The solution is the use of an active version of STPA (Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis). The Active STPA uses different sources to diagnose the safety status of a system, such as data collected in Flight Data Monitoring and events from voluntary reporting. The input messages of those sources updates the STPA on specific subjects (e.g., unstable approaches). The output of the process is a set of new preventing and mitigating measures. The Active STPA allows the generation of cumulative knowledge by guiding the reasoning on assumptions about the system. The feedback on SMS activities allows targeted Safety Promotion activities and provides qualitative information for hazard management and risk assessment. This Integrated SMS provides organized safety information for management, fostering better planning on the use of human and financial and resources. The results include the identification of new trends on safety, and the diagnose of the organization's Safety Culture and Safety Communication channels.