Collins, Higgins applaud new FAA rule to improve airline safety

Congressmen Chris Collins, R-NY-27, and Brian Higgins, D-NY-26, today released the following statement on the Federal Aviation Administration's new rule requiring most U.S. commercial airlines to have safety management systems in place by 2018.

"The crash of Colgan Flight 3407 still weighs heavy on our community, and today's new rule is a promising step towards creating one level of aviation safety that Americans expect to receive when flying," Collins said. "I applaud the families of Flight 3407 for their tireless advocacy for increased airline safety standards, and will continue to fight on their behalf."

"I applaud today's rule issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, which represents the latest of several necessary aviation reforms put in place to better protect airline passengers," Higgins said. "Under this policy, airlines will incorporate new safety management systems, including data-driven criteria to identify risks before life-threatening problems occur; make systematic improvements; and ultimately help to reduce the potential for heartbreaking accidents, such as the 2009 crash of Flight 3407 in Western New York."

SMS is the formal, top-down, organization-wide approach to managing safety risk and assuring the effectiveness of safety risk controls. SMS gives airlines a set of business processes and management tools to examine data gathered from everyday operations, isolate trends that may be precursors to incidents or accidents, take steps to mitigate the risk, and verify the effectiveness of the program. SMS requires compliance with technical standards, but also promotes a safety culture to improve the overall performance of the organization.