This report seeks to explain the concept of safety culture, first as it was developed in other industries since the mid '80s until now, and second in terms of how it specifically relates to ATM. It also seeks to explain the relationship between safety culture and Safety Management Systems (SMS), and show why safety culture is important even if a good SMS is in place. The major role of safety culture in ATM is developed as that of enabler for safety, and evidence for the ability of safety culture to enable safety, and equally for the lack of safety culture to disable safety, is presented based on recent work with four European ANSPs. This leads to a proposed way forward to manage safety culture in European ATM, based on near-term development of a measurement system, safety culture guidance, and safety culture improvement approaches.
Understanding safety culture in air traffic management
The term safety culture has been in use over the past few years in ATM, but it is not always clear what is meant by this term, and how exactly it relates to the ATM industry.