Safety management must provide strong, demonstrable, and visible leadership if the safety program to succeed. Management’s accident prevention attitude and safety culture are typically reflected in the attitudes of the supervisors which in turn are reflected in attitudes of the operators and maintainers in the aviation industry. If key leadership does not demonstrate a genuine interest in the safety program, it is likely that few others in the organization will give the program a chance to succeed. Some of the duties of the safety manager are: Employee Involvement (directly applying the program to employees that are actively participants in the area around hazards), Responsibility and Accountability (assigning responsibility to key personnel to ensure the program is being flowed. Also, making employees responsible for their areas that are lacking in the programs.), Trends Analysis and Risk Management (identifying hazardous trends and applying ways to mitigate them.), Accident Investigation, Hazardous Prevention and Control Programs (This topic is where the manager will need to work closely with OSHA and EPA to ensure they are following regulations.), Communication (ensuring that all the areas of your program flow to each member of the aviation community, and that they can also communicate with you.), and Training.
As you can see the safety manager has many responsibilities in the aviation industry. Without a safety manager there would be no one person responsible for the success of the safety program. The importance of a safety manager can most clearly be observed in the lack of aviation mishaps. Though there will always be mishaps, the manager’s duty is to ensure they are steadily reducing. As long as there are hazards in the aviation industry there will be a need for a safety manager. The cost of losing a multimillion dollar aircraft and/or countless customers goes without saying. The safety manager’s position is a valuable and important position.