Don’t Wait Until Too Late to Put Together SMS, Warns Baldwin

Tuesday, 23 February 2010 00:00

George Larson This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


U.S. operators are lagging behind a Nov. 18, 2010, deadline out there to get their Safety Management System approved for operating outside North America , warns Don Baldwin, principal at South Carolina-based Baldwin Aviation. “A lot of people haven’t even started, and they’re going to be too late,” he advised Aviation Week today.


“The only way for a U.S. operator to comply is through an IS-BAO (International Standard for Business Aircraft Operation) registration,” Baldwin advises. Operators who want to fly in Europe could find themselves technically barred.


Obtaining approvals is Baldwin ’s bread and butter, and his clients hire him for that very purpose. “We’re getting calls now from people telling us ‘We need help’ and ‘What can we do?’”


The biggest stumbling block, says Baldwin , is generating an operations manual that “reflects the way the operator does business.”


Baldwin notes that they have gotten some SMS approvals in about four months. “When I was at Coca-Cola, it took us 18 to 20 months,” he adds.


U.S. operators are also scrambling to make sense of the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme and file their required paperwork, so flight departments throughout the nation are under pressure this year.