According to news reports, when the Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling platform suffered a catastrophic well-head blowout then burned and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last April, workers on the rig hesitated to implement multiple safety processes that might have helped save some or all of the 11 lives lost in the ensuing explosion and also prevent the spilling of millions of gallons of oil.
The operation was covered by a safety management system (SMS), yet the accident underscores a key weakness of any safety program: it depends on the people involved. And that illustrates the core issue facing the business aviation as it becomes increasingly clear to the industry that SMS is going to be mandatory some day: no matter how many safety programs are implemented, if the key players do not support the concept and make it part of their everyday operation, the SMS is not going to offer any benefit, other than enabling an operation to meet whatever regulatory requirements led to the creation of the program.
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