3. Safety Risk Management

3.1 – Overview

Risk management is the identification and control of risk. It is the responsibility of every member of APSU Aviation Science. The safety risk management process will involve the Aviation Safety Coordinator, key stake holders, and an aviaiton student representative.

To establish and maintain a safe operational environment, APSU Aviation Science will incorporate Safety Risk Management (SRM). SRM is a formal system for identifying and mitigating risk. There are five processes necessary to control and mitigate risk. The processes are as follows:

System description and analysis
Hazard Identification
Safety risk analysis
Risk assessment
Risk controls

3.2 – System Analysis

Process owners must analyze the systems identified when applying SRM. System analysis helps identify hazards and develop appropriate risk controls when the hazards have a higher risk. The system analysis gains a better understanding of the system and identifies how a hazard may affect another process owner, such as maintenance or flight operations. The system analysis should consider the following:

Function and purpose of the system
The system’s operating environment (fuel site, hangar)
An outline of the system’s processes and procedures (for example, moving aircraft in and out of hangar)
The personnel, equipment, and facilities necessary for the operation of the system
- Identify the process owners

The system analysis should explain the functions and interactions among the hardware, software, people, and environment that make up the system in sufficient detail to identify hazards and perform a risk analysis.

3.3 – Hazard Identification

The systematic identification and control of all major hazards is the fundamental process of the APSU Aviation Safety Program. One of the pillars to our success is effectively managing hazards and their associated risks.

Hazards are primarily identified through employee/student reporting, safety meetings, and inspections. Hazards are also associated with changes in operations, equipment, or training. When changes occur or are anticipated, the change process should include hazard identification and risk management.

Hazard and Incident Reporting Commitment

Effective implementation of the APSU Aviation Safety Program’s commitment is contingent upon a working system to prevent accidents. A program to identify and report workplace hazards is essential to preventing unsafe incidents.

Under normal circumstances, all reported hazards should be investigated and if necessary, mitigated at the lowest operational level utilizing established lines of authority and responsibility. The goal of hazard and incident reporting allows affected personnel to report recognized hazards or incidents to the Aviation Safety Coordinator, the Program Director/Chief Flight Instructor, and the Assistant Chief Flight Instructor for appropriate action.

Hazard/Incident Reporting Form

The Hazard Reporting Form can be found in various locations throughout the APSU Hangar and on the APSU website. Anyone who witnesses any unsafe event, on the ground or in the air, should complete it and submit directly to the APSU Aviation Safety Coordinator or anonymously. The APSU Aviation Safety Coordinator will review the hazard form and forward to the appropriate faculty member (Chief Flight Instructor, for example) for further review.

Depending on the severity of the incident or what actions are warranted, the report can be closed by the appropriate faculty member and/or the APSU Aviation Safety Coordinator or can be escalated to the Dean of CoSTEM for further oversight. If necessary, the hazard or incident may be tracked for trend analysis or immediately submitted into the form SRM process.

At the minimum, all submitted hazard reports will be reviewed at each Safety Council meeting. The review must include the Dean of CoSTEM, Aviation Science Program Director/Chief Flight Instructor, Assistant Chief Flight Instructor, Director of Maintenance, Operations Coordinator, and an aviation student representative. The goal of the review is to identify areas that could use the most improvement and to identify any trends that may be occurring.

3.4 – Mandatory Reporting

The requirements for reporting accidents, incidents, or occurrences described in this section are intended solely to ensure that safety data that may benefit APSU Aviation Safety is collected. The simple act of reporting these events is the first step of protecting APSU employees, students, and equipment.

The following occurrences will be filed as designated next to each entry:

Incorrect or contaminated fuel: Hazard Report*
Runway incursion: Hazard Report
Any damage to APSU-operated aircraft: Hazard Report*
Any damage caused to another aircraft or personal property: Hazard Report*
Hard landing with or without damage: Hazard Report*
VFR flight into IMC conditions: Chief Flight Instructor*
Human factor incident that did or could cause in incident (cowling open): Hazard Report
Loss of control: Hazard Report
Loss of any part or aircraft structure in flight: Hazard Report*
Any event leading to a declaration of an emergency: Hazard Report*
Any identified burning, smoke, or fumes in flight: Hazard Report
Drone encounters within 500 feet: Hazard Report
Accident and incident defined by the NTSB: Chief Flight Instructor*
On-duty employee/student injury: Program Director*
Damage to aircraft due to aircraft movement in/around hangar: Hazard Report*

*Contact the APSU Aviation Safety Coordinator within 24 hours

3.5 – Safety Risk Assessment

The level of risk must be determined for each identified hazard. To determine the risk, the process owner needs to define both the likelihood of occurrence and severity associated with the hazard. It is important to remember that likelihood and severity refer to the hazard but to a potential incident related to the hazard.

Likelihood

Analyzing each hazard’s likelihood will lead to a risk value according to the likelihood criteria. This is based on whether there is a history of similar occurrences or if it is an isolated incident.

Likelihood definitions and scoring are defined in the following table:

Likelihood	Descriptor	Score
Likely to Occur – Continuously experienced (1 in 1-100)	Frequent	5
Possible to Occur – May be experienced (1 in 100-1,000)	Occasional	4
Unlikely to Occur – Surprise event (1 in 1,000-10,000)	Remote	3
Very Unlikely – Exceptional circumstances (1 in 10,000-100,000)	Improbable	2
Inconceivable to Occur (1 in 100,000-1,000,000)	Doubtful	1

Severity

The criterion for assessing each identified hazard’s severity is based on various activities, events, and interactions with internal and external stakeholders. The following table shows the impact criteria:

Descriptor (Score)	Catastrophic (5)	Hazardous (4)	Major (3)	Minor (2)	Negligible (1)
University	Extended negative (Months) of national media activity resulting in substantial change in public perception of university	Medium-term (Weeks) of negative national media activity resulting in substantial change in public perception of university	Short-term (Days) of negative media/internet activity resulting in minor change in public perception of university	Short-term negative media/internet activity resulting in no change in public perception of university	Isolated negative media/internet activity resulting in no change in public perception of university
Accident / Incident	Hull loss accident with serious injuries or fatalities or significant damage to aircraft or property	Serious incident with moderate injuries and/or substantial damage to aircraft or property	Serious incident with injuries and moderate damage to aircraft or property	Incident with minor injuries and/or minor damage to aircraft or property	Incident with less than minor injuries and/or less than minor system damage
Injury	Fatality or serious injury with total disability / loss or capacity	Immediate admission to hospital as extended inpatient or significant disability / loss of capacity	Immediate admission to hospital as inpatient and/or partial disability / loss of capability	Injury with ongoing treatment with no permanent disability / loss of capability	No treatment required beyond first aid
Operational	Emergency, safe operation affected (exercising emergency authority, IIMC, component or system malfunction that severely affects controlled flight, etc.)	Abnormal procedures required for continued flight, safe operation affected (loss of electrical power, CHIP light, hydraulic failure, precautionary landing for weather, etc.)	Abnormal procedures required, safe operations affected (special handling without an emergency, divert for weather, communication failure, etc.)	Abnormal procedures with potential for unsafe operation affected (governor failure, ADS-B failure, lighting failure, GPS failure, etc.)	Normal procedures with potential for unsafe operations affected (false indications, low-light conditions, etc.)
OSHA	Willful	Repeat	Serious	General / Other	Recommendation
Regulatory	Major deviation with possible loss of certificates, approvals, specifications, permits, etc.; with potential suspension of all operations	Serious deviation with possible loss of certificates, approvals, specifications, permits, etc.; with potential partial suspension of operations	Moderate deviation or major noncompliance with company standards without impact on certificates, approvals, specifications, permits, etc.; resulting in negative impact on relationship	Minor policy or procedural deviation with no impact on certificates, approvals, specifications, permits, etc.; resulting in negative capacity to manage operations	No deviation or impact on certificates, approvals, specifications, permits, etc.; but not in compliance with recognized best practices

Determining Risk Level

One the Likelihood and Severity values have been determined, they will together provide the Risk Assessment value for hazards and occurrences. This is accomplished through the Risk Matrix, below. This methodology is designed to provide a unified vocabulary for discussing, evaluating, and comparing risks in all parts of the business. It is intended to be resilient and durable as the organization evolves and process owners change.

Descriptor	Catastrophic	Hazardous	Major	Minor	Negligible
Frequent	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH	MEDIUM	MEDIUM
Occasional	HIGH	HIGH	MEDIUM	MEDIUM	MEDIUM
Remote	HIGH	MEDIUM	MEDIUM	MEDIUM	LOW
Improbable	MEDIUM	MEDIUM	MEDIUM	LOW	LOW
Doubtful	LOW	LOW	LOW	LOW	LOW

Risk Acceptance and Authority

Risk acceptance refers to the decision by an organization or individual to knowingly accept a potential risk without taking active measures to mitigate it.

HIGH	Unacceptable. Requires the highest priority for investigation, resources, and quick corrective action to reduce the risk of the hazard to a lower and acceptable level
MEDIUM	May be acceptable with review by appropriate authority. There are acceptable policies and procedures in place, but improvement is possible
LOW	May be acceptable without further action

Risk authority refers to a person or group within an organization who has the power to make final decision on whether to accept a particular risk, based on established risk tolerance levels and considering the potential consequences involved.

The following is the risk authority for the APSU Aviation Science program:

High Risk: Dean of CoSTEM
Medium Risk: Program Director, Chief Flight Instructor, Assistant Chief Flight Instructor, Director of Maintenance (ALL maintenance-related hazards)
Low Risk: Program Director, Chief Flight Instructor, Assistant Chief Flight Instructor, Aviation Safety Coordinator, Director of Maintenance, Flight Instructor (ONLY Flight Risk Assessments)

3.6 – Risk Control Measures

Risk control measures are strategies implemented to mitigate or manage the potential risks and hazards that may arise in various activities, processes, or environments. After assessing a hazard and assigning a risk rating, effective risk controls should be implemented to protect workers. Working through the hierarchy of risk controls can be an effective method of choosing the right control measure to reduce the risk and they are as follows:

Elimination – If possible, physically remove the hazard
- Avoid flying in known hazardous weather conditions
- Avoid flying an aircraft with known maintenance issues
Substitution – Replace the hazard with a safer alternative
- Replacing older aircraft with known safety concerns
- Updating aircraft technologies (navigation)
Engineering – Physically isolating people from the hazard
- Installing advanced engine monitoring systems
- Enhanced runway lighting systems
Administrative – Changing how people work through procedures, training, and signage
- Implementing fatigue management policy
- Regularly reviewing and updating procedures and regulations
- Develop training, communication, and awareness campaigns
PPE – Last line of defense to protect individual from the hazard
- Hearing protection in high noise areas
- Specialized gloves for particular hazards

In short, risk controls are anything that would lessen the likelihood or severity of a potential hazard. Once a risk control is put in place it should be monitored and assessed for effectiveness to ensure the control reduced the risk and did not create a new hazard.

In aviation, it is impossible to eliminate all potential hazards; however, the risk should be reduced to As Low As Reasonably Possible (ALARP). The remaining risk or residual risk must be accepted by the proper authority.