Safety culture at a collegiate flight school

Abstract

Safety management systems are implemented in aviation to assess and iteratively improve on safety, with the goal of monitoring and maintaining a strong safety culture to reduce risks and avoid future incidents and accidents. Maintaining a strong safety culture is a critical component of maintaining safety in organizations from airlines to flight schools. Safety management systems (SMSs) stress iterative assessment and improvement in order to decrease risk. Regular assessment of safety culture allows for the promotion of safety. The purpose of this study was to examine safety culture at a collegiate flight school in the southeastern United States using the Global Aviation Information Network's (GAIN) individual safety survey (2001) and determine if different groups within the organization had different perceptions of safety: undergraduate students in ground courses, maintenance personnel, and flight instructors. Overall, survey results indicated a positive safety culture. Although there was a significant difference in responses between students in Aeronautics 1 and 4, the effect size indicated that the difference was quite small, and there were no significant differences between any other groups.