Airline Flight Safety Officer

[tubby linton]

How much does your airline pay its' fleet flight safety officers and how much work are they contracted for in this role?

[Sir Niall Dementia]

I am my company's Flight Safety Manager, the extra pay is'nt worth it but the job itself is fascinating. I get around £ 5 000 pa as a supplement, and I do the job on top of my normal line flying. I have learned more about flight safety SMS etc in the 5 years I have held this role than in the 9 years before when I was the Chief Pilot for a similar operation. And sometimes I get to see positive benefits, and then the poor extra pay is worth it.

[tubby linton]

Thank you for the info.What SMS do you use?

[Sir Niall Dementia]

We use our own; created around CAA/EASA requirements. When we went shopping for one none really fitted the type of aviation we are involved in ie a mix of mid-large size biz jets and medium sized VIP helicopters. The quality manager and myself took the best bits of what we saw and added some new areas to deal with company specific roles, part of that was a web based "open reporting forum" where any employee can comment or recommend (this has become in many ways an extension to crew room chat and rumour, but the facts tend to be better because anyone commiting themselves to it tends to have their information right as they see it from the start). The forum became a part of the SMS audit system and has been a remarkably useful tool.

The biggest problem we had with SMS was a lack of understanding from other providers about how much of an SMS is already legislated for and how we needed to cover many different areas. Also we needed the system to evolve at easier and faster rate than an off the shelf version could, as it is our own then changes (subject to CAA approval) can be made very quickly and the information disseminated via internal e-mail and the forum as well as the printed word.

[Ogeinc]

Hi, I am interested in a job as an airline flight safety officer. what does the job entail and what are the main responsibilities of a flight safety officer?

[Jimmy 16]

Hi, I am interested in a job as an airline flight safety officer. what does
the job entail and what are the main responsibilities of a flight safety
officer?

Have a look at this page:

Global Aviation Safety Network (GAIN) | Flight Safety Foundation (http://flightsafety.org/archives-and-resources/global-aviation-safety-network-gain)

[CharlieDontSurff]

Hi there,

Just wanted to try and resurrect this thread. I'm just starting out my career as a pilot, and very interested in safety, accident prevension/investigation side of things. Anyone here hold such responsibility in their respective companies able to give me more of an insight into what they get up to?

I'm gunning to some day work for the AAIB and having this role i'm guessing would be advantageous along with all the other personal attributes

[Homsap]

CharlieDontSurff...

I think if you have aspirations in safety and investigation now is a good time to start building upon your operational flying experience. However for a role in an organisation like AAIB you would be need to be a specialist in operations, training, engineering, human factors, psychology, medicine, etc,.

There are a number of things you could do in parallel to you flying career so you can expand on your knowledge, and read all the current and historic accident reports.

PM me if you want further information.

If you want inspiration, read up on Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III in wikipedia, in terms of the additional qualification he gained in addition to his ATPL and flying experience.

[CharlieDontSurff]

Homsap

Thank you for your reply! Agreed, I recently saw an ad for the AAIB for operations investigator requiring 5000+ hours. So I'm still a little way off!

I second the reading of the monthly accident reports. They are a great source of information that every pilot should cast an eye over.