Much has been written in recent years about establishing a culture of safety within commercial aviation. The FAA’s safety management system (SMS) program emphasizes the systems approach, highlighting risk management, safety reporting channels, and compliance with safety protocols. The SMS concept provides the structure for a consistent, high level of safety for operational environments where the flying is within organized airspace on pre-planned routes, corporate aviation and airlines being the prime examples.
But in some sectors of aviation, operations are just the opposite. Helicopters routinely fly on missions in uncontrolled airspace where the objective is not a destination. It is a purpose, a job, an assignment, an emergency. The management structure for these operations is task-focused, requiring pilots to be highly proficient in flight skills specific to the mission. To assure those skills are properly focused on the task requires that pilot managers be closer to day-to-day operations.
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