Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

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.
Under a 2024 rulemaking, Part 135 operators face a May 28, 2027 SMS compliance deadline. That is the date when operators must submit their declaration of compliance, meaning they have SMS fully implemented.
Suzette Rash, manager of the FAA’s Office of Safety Standards, and FAA aviation inspector Jim McKenna simulated a hypothetical scenario of a conversation between an FAA principal inspector and company safety officer, highlighting how this collaboration could take place. The idea was to sit down and have a conversation in a way that could spotlight how companies manage risks rather than “kicking tires” through inspection.
This scenario pointed out a connection between maintenance issues, something that a robust SMS can help tie together and position a company to address.
“We wanted you to learn from this [simulation] that the minimum is the compliance—you have your safety management system that meets Part 5—but then your real benefit of the safety management system is utilizing and maturing your safety management system,” Rash said. “That’s where we want to get to, both as an inspector workforce and industry: we want to help improve safety management within the organizations to help identify those hazards so that we can come back and make them safer.”
As this happens, she added, the inspector workforce will have greater confidence in an operator’s ability to identify hazards and mitigate risks. “Then we could focus our energy and our resources in the areas that we […] don’t have that confidence in.”
The FAA is just getting started at measuring and looking at safety culture, along with SMS maturity, Rash said. But she also stressed that this isn’t to emphasize what is wrong, but rather, “how can we make it better. So, as we go in and look at that, don’t be fearful that you’re going to get a compliance action or an enforcement action. It’s just a conversation about how we can make this better.”
This approach reflects a different philosophy and perhaps lessons learned from the implementation of Part 5 SMS requirements with Part 121 scheduled airlines. “When we rolled out the 121s, we were really focused on the implementation plan,” Rash recalled. Rather than focus on implementation and a back and forth of what the FAA thinks would not work, the agency is asking operators to design an SMS that they think fits best, use it for a period of time, work out the bugs, and then submit it to the FAA when they believe it works. “We’re saying, ‘How is it performing,’ versus, ‘Let me look at the design.’”
One audience member questioned whether these conversations raise a gray area where some inspectors may want to initiate certificate actions. But Rash said the agency is training its inspector workforce on this approach and that disagreements could always be elevated.
Another noted that “just culture” is not just within a company but must be between the FAA and the operator, saying that the subjectivity involved in inspector review of these programs “is challenging for us.” The commenter added, “Sometimes it feels like this isn’t regulation, [and] this is, you’re telling me how to run the business.”
Rash responded, “We do recognize this is the squishy area. It’s a very uncomfortable area.” FAA inspectors are maintenance technicians, pilots, and dispatchers. “We like black and white. So we’re now in an uncomfortable position.”&nbsp; As a result, the FAA is conducting a lot of outreach with the inspector workforce and stressing that the agency does not regulate by policy.
“We’re getting there,” she added. “We’re trying to shift that narrative.”

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

FAA Eyes Collaboration Toward Enhancing SMS

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

FAA officials highlight a new approach to assess the maturity of SMS programs rather than prescribing their design so companies can benefit.

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Safety culture comes into focus

ACSF Safety Summit Opens with Tackling Daily Challenges

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

News and issues relating to international air transport and cargo carriers, national airlines and regional airlines, including aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

Graham has served on the board since 2020 and was renominated for a term extending through 2030

White House Appoints Michael Graham as NTSB Vice Chair

Matt Thurber

News about significant aircraft accidents and information from accident reports.

News and issues concerning general aviation, specifically airplanes and helicopters powered by piston and alternative engines (i.e., non-turbine powered aircraft). Subjects include aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

LNAV+V advisory glide paths can be helpful but do not guarantee obstacle clearance

AINsight: Watch Out Below the Minimum Descent Altitude

Stuart “Kipp” Lau

On average, two lithium-ion battery thermal runaway events occur every week, mostly while aircraft are in cruise

Lithium-ion Battery Fires: Understanding Risks and Containment 

News about simulators and training procedures, as well as workforce.

Recommendation from Kobe Bryant crash investigation called for pilot spatial disorientation training

AINsight: Spatial Disorientation Training for Bizav Pilots

Charlotte Bailey

News and information about crew, passenger, aircraft and airport security issues.

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

Increasing number of interference events prompted need for consistent guidance 

EASA and Eurocontrol Publish GNSS Joint Action Plan 

Curt Epstein

This year’s show is the largest in its 37-year history

Bolen Touts Safety, New ATC System at SDC

News and developments about aviation fuel, including jet fuel, aviation gasoline, and biofuel.

More In Safety