The Safety Management International Collaboration Group (SMICG) is made up of 18 aviation regulatory authorities. The group was created to promote safety management principles and requirements, and to make it easier to facilitate their application across the international aviation community.
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Background and membership
The SMICG was founded in 2009 by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA). Its membership has since grown, and core members include:
- The Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia
- The National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil
- Transport Canada Civil Aviation
- The European Aviation Safety Agency
- Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile in France
- The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau
- The Civil Aviation Authority of the Netherlands
- The Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand
- The Aviation Safety and Security Agency of Spain
- The Federal Office of Civil Aviation of Switzerland
- The Civil Aviation Authority of United Kingdom; and the
- The US Federal Aviation Administration Aviation Safety Organization
Purpose
In 1944, the United Nations created the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) under the Convention on international Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention. ICAO is tasked with coordinating and regulating international air travel.
The Chicago Convention includes ICAO’s Annex 19 requirements for states to implement Safety Management Systems (SMS) for the management of safety risks. Moreover, under this convention, ICAO requires that States help improve aviation safety around the world.
The SMICG helps with this work. The SMICG’s purpose is to:
- Promote the principles and requirements of safety management systems (SMS) and state safety programs (SSP)
- Help other countries create and use SMS’ and SSPs
- Work together on topics related to SMS/ SSP
- Share lessons learned
- Work towards creating a harmonized SMS
- Share information with the aviation community
- Liaise with ICAO
The SMICG does not have authority over any of the organizations that make up its membership. Organizations participate voluntarily, and work together on decisions and recommendations.
Engagement
Recently, the SMICG has worked on improving their support to the global aviation community. It has met this goal by creating guidance material, and engaging with members of the aviation community.
Their guidance material focuses on communicating safety management requirements, promoting consistent terminology, and supporting others as they develop their own safety management systems (SMS). Products come in the form of guidance, promotional material, tools, and training programs. These products are available on the SMICG website.
For the most part, the SMICG engages with the aviation community through:
- SMICG Industry Day; and
- Consulting with industry via SKYbrary