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General Information
The American Association of Airport Executives, The MITRE Corporation and Airports Council International–North America, in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration are pleased to present the conference, “Airport SMS: From FAA Pilot Program to Implementation” to be held October 30-31, 2008 in Baltimore, Maryland.
In November 2006, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) amended Annex 14, Volume I (Airport Design and Operations) to require member States to have certificated international airports establish a Safety Management System (SMS). In February 2007, the FAA released Advisory Circular 150/5200-37 which begins the process of introducing SMS into the U.S. airport community. The FAA intends to propose new rules to Part 139 in 2009. Over the past year, pilot programs funded by the FAA have been testing the SMS Concept at various airports. The results of the pilot program will be released at the conference.
What is SMS? SMS is a systematic, proactive and well-defined safety program, allowing an organization to incorporate safety and productivity, to fully understand and mitigate the safety risks of actions and activities at the airport. It is essentially a tool for all users of the aviation system to be aware of the risk and to be actively engaged in minimizing the risk while flying. The key to any successful SMS program is that it is data driven, and relies on a non-punitive system of self-reporting.
This conference brings the leadership of the FAA to explain the goals and objectives for SMS at U.S. airports. The conference will also incorporate other aviation sectors that are already moving forward with SMS, such as air traffic and air carriers, in order to learn from their experiences.
Finally, the conference will give participants the unique opportunity to hear first-hand from pilot airports what challenges, successes and findings they have achieved.