The Difference Between Safety Risk Profiles and Safety Performance Indicators

A question was recently posted as to the differences between a Safety Risk Profile (SRP) and Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs).

The Safety Risk Profile is an evaluation of the perceived highest risk associated with the overall operation of the organization, whether it is a flight department, management company, fixed base operator or maintenance facility. Safety Performance Indicators are created to monitor individual safety parameters and are mitigated to their lowest value of risk, which collectively will reduce the overall operational risk. The SRP is what is being asked of the organization, the level of risk associated with the operation and how we are going to mitigate the risk to the lowest level.

Through ICAO Doc 9859 v.4 we can define the Safety Risk Management (SRM) and SRP as a document that is an overview of the safety risks that are generally experienced by the organization and the development of mitigation strategies that are integrated into the operator’s system.

1. The overall level of safety management (e.g., low, medium, high) needed for consistent safe operations; and
2. The specific areas of higher risk that individual operations may experience

SRP

The SRP should be reviewed annually, with a complete assessment every three years and/or anytime there is a change in operational risks.

Operational changes may include but are not restricted to:

• Department management style or principal/CEO travel requirements
• New operational crew members, maintenance and line support staff
• Company acquisition and/or blending of business operations
• New fuel farm, fuel trucks or aircraft tow equipment
• New aircraft, avionics suite, auto-throttles, HUD or EVS
• Remote airport locations, mountainous terrain or minimal weather information
• Oceanic and international operations

The following shows that your company has acquired a new international company and a larger aircraft has been purchased to accommodate the executive travel needs. Your department has now grown with additional flight and cabin crew for oceanic and international operations along with a different hangar facility and fuel farm.

The associated risks with the new operation that need to be mitigated will be:

• New aircraft and avionics, auto-throttles, HUD and EVS
• Additional flight and cabin crew members
• Oceanic and international operations
• Hangar facility and fuel farm operations

The plan to mitigate the associated risk can include the following:

• Fuel farm training and certification along with facility operational procedures
• Aircraft and avionics training along with HUD and EVS certification
• Higher crew minimums until knowledge and experience are gained
• Job and duty description to clarify and enhance communications of operational staff
• Simulator training for oceanic lofts, international STARS and SIDs and airport familiarization
• Adding experienced international contract crew members if needed to gain knowledge

SPI

The SPI is a data-based parameter used for monitoring and assessing safety performance. Working along with a Safety Performance Target (SPT), it creates a planned or intended objective for safety performance over a given period. This reduces complexity to small number of key indicators and should be associated with mitigating your overall risk to its lowest level.

The development and tracking of SPIs can be implemented to support the mitigation of the SRP. By evaluating the proposed mitigation of risk, we can create SPIs that may be associated with the operations and project targets for evaluation. SPIs will also create awareness among personnel.

• Stabilized approaches
• Landing in touchdown zone
• Procedural errors or lapses – climb & descent via, FMS programming errors
• Aircraft not grounded for fueling or no wing walker during towing
• Incorrect fuel loads 4 Working Fatigue
• Shift differential or circadian low operations

Tracking the SPI trends can identify changes in the safety performance when expressed by the SPIs and their associated alerts and target values. Changes can be addressed quickly when needed to enhance safety. Targets should be realistic and achievable with consideration given to recent historical performance for a given indicator. SPIs should be appropriate and pertinent to the individual organization, not industry standards. Reflection needs to be given to what our safety issues are and how to monitor and
address them.

By utilizing the Safety Risk Profile, we can identify and evaluate the overall risk associated with the operation and create the mitigation to achieve the lowest level. The collection of data from the Safety Performance Indicators and Targets collectively aids in mitigating the risk to the lowest level.