Safety first. This norm is used in all industries. Aviation is one of them. Safety is a commonplace idea in aviation. We can see the safety regulations in all sections of the aviation industry.
According to ISO 9001:2015 Quality management principles are divided into 7 subparts. These are Customer Focus, Leadership, Engagement of People, Process Approach, Improvement, Evidence-based decision making and Relation Management. Safety requirements are make a direct influence this subparts.In the aviation industry quality management aims for excellent management and supervising of processes.
In the aviation industry safety regulations have been changed all time. Aviation experts examine the flights and other operations. For example, on September 11, 2001, 4 aircraft were hijacked by terrorist groups. Terrorists entered the aircraft cockpit and they deactivated the pilots. After this situation cockpit door security is increased by aircraft manufacturers. Any more cockpit doors are controlled by a password and only pilots and pursers know this password. This type of situation affects the airline manufacturers quality management program. They shouldn’t take the chance in this type of situation.
The second example is flight training. In 2018, EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) announced a new requirement for new CPL (Commercial Pilot Licence) holders. This requirement is related to UPRT (Upset Prevention and Recovery Training), basically, this requirement includes abnormal conditions and recovery after this situation. In 2022 Turkey obliged this requirement for every pilot. After this situation every flight school bought UPRT certificated aircraft. They spent a lot of money. However, flight schools and teachers could not keep up with the sudden increase in demand. Many students are waiting for a long time. Flight schools couldn’t satisfy the demand.
Last example is about safety regulations. Risk is located in everywhere in companies such as flight operation, human resources and crew planning. In the airline companies they defined the risks and want to mitigate or reduction them. In the quality management process we can see the same risk approach. For example, in the flight schools beginning stage pilot candidate has alone pilot-in command flight. This flight only done by pilot candidate. This situation ınstructor pilot examine the weather conditions and they decide about flight situation. Wind conditions such as crosswind or tailwind is the most important risk in this event. AFM (Aircraft Flight Manual) contains wind limitations of aircraft. AFM said that “Maximum crosswind limit 20 kt” “Maximum tailwind limit 5 kt”. However, flight training schools restrict this rule, they apply only 10 kt crosswind and no tailwind. If this own crosswind limit is not sufficient for safety they can do more restrict. This situation shows the quality management continious improvement principle.