Constant Aviation has released that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recognised it as having a single, corporate-wide Safety Management System (SMS), making it only the second MRO so designated. Achieving FAA-accepted corporate SMS status means that Constant is operating under a single safety system company-wide, which generally reduces safety risk and ranks it as a leader in business aviation maintenance safety.
SMS is the standard for safety programmes in aviation worldwide. Although SMS processes are optional for MROs such as Constant, they are seen as highly beneficial and frequently are requested both by domestic customers and foreign certificate holders.
Although the FAA only recently recognised Constant’s corporate SMS programme, the company has been operating with SMS processes since August 2018.
During an FAA audit in December 2021, Constant Aviation demonstrated that its SMS system runs parallel between the Cleveland and Sanford facilities, thereby meeting the standard of a corporate SMS programme. It met such criteria as having a single accountable executive; maintaining a common database; having data reviewed and analysed at the corporate level; having the capacity to identify and communicate hazards across all affected organisations and having a common manual and documentation.