SafetyConcerns - my point in mentioning a driving test, was that a driving test and a safety audit both achieve 2 things - namely an attempt at verifying certain procedures and processes are carried out properly, or that the person / organisation is capable of doing so.
A driving test in the UK is an unusual form of safety audit, in that having passed the test aged 17, one does not need to recertify for at least another 50 years, giving great scope for adopting lax standards by the time of middle age. I would guess that many people aged 37 since passing a driving test at the age of 17 might have let some of their procedure following standards slip a little over a period of 20 years - and thus if they had to recertify themselves might want some kind of informal review before a formal test.
In the same way, within any large organisation, it is inevitable that commercial pressures, laziness, ignorance, or any combination may lead to minor slips in following formal procedures. That formal audit is costly, cannot be easily repeated and may have damaging consequences in the event of serious failure on audit points. Further, an audit does not in itself make for a safe operation - it only validates the following of process and procedure. An internal and informal self-validation is far more likely to find lax procedure following - it essentially brings a wayward organisation as a whole closer to a reasonable standard.
It would be nice if all airlines, large and small, in rich countries and poor, were capable of doing a full internal audit without external prompting, but commercial pressures - and possibly also lax supervision from Govt authorities suggest otherwise in some cases. The Govt of Chad for example if it has a bit of spare cash could spend it on monitoring airline engineering teams, or it could add to existing spending on literacy programmes and refugee camps - I know what I'd choose.
If an airline feels the need to do internal preparation prior to an audit, this signifies one of 2 things:
a) The airline takes the audit and its outcome seriously
b) The airline believes credibly that internal standards might have slipped a little since 12 months ago and considers it a useful exercise to undergo a period of self monitoring
Yes, Nationwide was a shocking case, but I would guess:
1) The South African Govt authorities were possibly being too lax prior to the time the engine fell off.
2) If IATA did not do audits, there may well have been other more dramatic cases of this in other countries with weak Govt supervision anyway. The audit just discourages bad practice - it cannot prevent it completely.
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 25th Feb 2009 at 01:23.