Industry as well, has also been proactive in encouraging voluntary adoption of SMS. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has adopted many of the concepts and practices embedded in SMS and promulgated them through the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). This program encourages global airlines to achieve standardization in safety management and has been adopted by all 290 IATA members and an additional 129 aviation operators. In the US, organizations such as the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) and the National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA) have been active in providing encouragement and SMS resources to their members.
4.3 Elements of Safety Management Systems (SMS) for the UAS Industry This section proposes a model and recommends certain common SMS standards along a continuum from novice UAS pilot to UAS professional and from small commercial operator to manufacturer. The aim is to provide tools to establish organizational frameworks and professional paths for lessening risks and proactively identify hazards. This involves a light touch in low-risk, non-commercial circumstances and gradually scales with the size of entity and assumption of risk. It focuses on what needs to be done and not how to do it. The goals are twofold: • Provide confidence to the American public that the industry has a commitment to their safety. • Create a compliance framework for regulators that scales and moves at the speed of industry. The cited standards below are used in traditional aviation and the language in the report has been adapted to the UAS industry, where appropriate. To the maximum extent possible, the report uses language found in National Aerospace Standard NAS 9927, Safety Management Systems and Practices for Design and Manufacturing. NAS 9927 has been approved by the FAA for use in aviation. Those standards taken from ICAO Annex 19, FAA SMS, IOSA, and UAST are footnoted accordingly. The composition of the UAS industry suggests that requirements for SMS be applied along a continuum across four easily identifiable categories of operator, operation, and manufacture. • Recreational and non-commercial operators not equipped with FPV or electronic path technologies • Commercial UAS operators employing fewer than three people and those operators equipped with FPV or electronic path technologies
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