Business Aviation Safety Summit

Attendees, exhibitors & solutions

Who this event is for

Industry trends

Key trends shaping this market and its wider industry.

Hotel tiers

A range of accommodation options near the venue and across key areas.

Local transport

Get around the city with these convenient transport options.

Frequently asked

Glossary

1

Safety Management System (SMS)

A documented, organisation-wide framework of policies, risk controls and assurance processes that an operator, MRO or airport uses to manage safety proactively rather than only reacting to accidents. In aviation it is built on the four ICAO components: safety policy, safety risk management, safety assurance and safety promotion.

2

ICAO Annex 19

The international standard that made State Safety Programmes and Safety Management Systems a formal requirement, moving SMS obligations from guidance into the Standards and Recommended Practices that national regulators transpose into their own rules.

3

Safety Risk Management (SRM)

The hazard identification and risk assessment half of an SMS: describing the hazard, analysing severity and likelihood, and putting mitigations in place before an occurrence happens.

4

Safety Assurance

The continuous monitoring half of an SMS: collecting data, auditing and reviewing performance against safety objectives so that mitigations still work after the risk assessment is signed off.

5

Safety Performance Indicator (SPI)

A measurable metric used to track whether safety objectives are being met, for example runway excursion events per 10,000 movements or the percentage of reports closed within a set period.

6

Just Culture

A reporting culture in which honest errors are not punished but reckless behaviour and deliberate violations still carry accountability. It is the condition that makes voluntary reporting systems produce usable data.

7

Voluntary Safety Reporting System

A confidential or de-identified channel through which front-line staff report hazards and errors without fear of enforcement, with the reports analysed for systemic rather than individual causes.

8

Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) / FOQA

Routine analysis of recorded flight parameters against defined exceedance thresholds to detect operational drift, unstable approaches and other precursors before they become incidents. FOQA is the US programme name for the same discipline.

9

Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA)

A structured, observation-based method in which trained observers ride the jump seat and record crew threat and error management behaviour against a standard taxonomy.

10

Threat and Error Management (TEM)

A framework for describing the threats crews encounter, the errors those threats provoke and the countermeasures that keep an error from escalating into an undesired aircraft state.

11

Crew Resource Management (CRM)

Training and operating practice covering communication, leadership, workload distribution and decision-making in the cockpit and cabin, so that technical competence is not undermined by team dynamics.

12

Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS)

A data-driven alternative to prescriptive duty-time limits, in which an operator monitors fatigue reports and rosters and applies mitigations proportionate to the risk identified.

13

Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP)

A US voluntary programme in which employees and certificate holders submit safety reports to an event review committee that includes the regulator, with enforcement relief where the report meets the programme's acceptance criteria.

14

Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT)

An accident in which an airworthy aircraft under crew control is flown into terrain, water or an obstacle, usually with no awareness of the impending impact. Modern mitigation combines terrain awareness warning systems, stabilised approach criteria and training.

15

Runway Excursion and Runway Incursion

An excursion is an aircraft leaving the runway surface during take-off or landing; an incursion is the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on a protected runway area. Both remain among the highest-frequency accident categories and drive much of the airport-side safety agenda.

16

Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR)

The crash-protected recorders that give investigators the parametric and audio evidence needed for accident investigation; their specifications and readout are governed by ICAO Annex 6 requirements.

17

Safety Culture Maturity

A way of grading how deeply safety thinking is embedded in an organisation, progressing from compliance-driven reporting to generative cultures where safety information flows freely and informs everyday decisions.

18

Maintenance Error Decision Aid (MEDA)

A structured investigation tool used in maintenance organisations to identify the contributing factors behind maintenance error, from documentation and equipment to supervision and organisational pressure.