FAA Eyes Collaboration Toward Enhancing SMS | Aviation International News

FAA Eyes Collaboration Toward Enhancing SMS

FAA wants to assess maturity rather than prescribe design of SMS programs

FAA aviation inspector Jim McKenna and Suzette Rash, manager of the FAA’s Office of Safety Standards — FAA aviation inspector Jim McKenna and Suzette Rash, manager of the FAA’s Office of Safety Standards, simulate a possible conversation to help guide the maturity of a company’s SMS program. © Kerry Lynch/AIN

By Kerry Lynch • Editor, AIN monthly magazine

April 9, 2026

FAA officials are hoping to foster collaboration as the industry moves toward implementation of safety management systems (SMS), telling the Air Charter Safety Foundation Safety Summit attendees on Wednesday that the agency wants to gauge the maturity of these programs so the company benefits from them.

But Safety Summit attendees still shared concerns that there will be an unevenness in implementation approvals from their local Flight Standards District Office inspectors, and that it opens the door to opinion.

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