1

SMS FOR FLIGHT DISPATCHERS

[Redacted]

EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY

AVM 4100 - Aviation Safety Program Management
ACTIVITY 6.3
 2

SUMMARY

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 3
2. SMS SAFETY MANAGEMENT ........................................................................... 3
a. Safety policies ....................................................................................................... 3

b. Safety Assurance .................................................................................................. 3

c. Risk Management ................................................................................................ 4

d. Safety Promotion ................................................................................................. 4

3. HAZARDS AND RISKS ......................................................................................... 4

a. Flight Plan creation ............................................................................................. 5

b. Meteorology analysis ........................................................................................... 5

c. Aircraft loading.................................................................................................... 5

d. Fuel quantity definition ....................................................................................... 6

4. CONTROLS ............................................................................................................ 6
a. Flight Plan creation ............................................................................................. 6

b. Meteorology analysis ........................................................................................... 6

c. Aircraft loading.................................................................................................... 7

d. Fuel quantity definition ....................................................................................... 7

5. SMS CONTROL TOOLS....................................................................................... 8

6. SMS CONTINOUS IMPROVEMENT ................................................................. 8
7. REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 8
 3

SMS FOR FLIGHT DISPATCHERS

1. INTRODUCTION

This paper discusses topics of safety management on the Flight Dispatcher career

when working on the airline environment. The Flight Dispatcher has a vital function on

airline operations, as it is the position responsible for creating the flight plan (navigation),

to analyze meteorology, to check operational conditions of airports, to be alert on air

traffic activity, to recommend fuel, and to make the load distribution and define center of

gravity position for each flight.

2. SMS SAFETY MANAGEMENT

The below topics show how the airline SMS (Safety Management System) is

integrated with the Flight Dispatcher activities, providing the safe operations standard to

each activity of the Flight Dispatcher.

a. Safety policies

Flight dispatchers are trained in the company’s safety policies and safety tools,

in order to know the company safety standards, and how it is influencing the flight

dispatch activity, as minimum required fuel, proper meteorology condition forecast, how

to handle with the aircraft performance information or limitation, knowledge of minimum

field conditions for safe operation, etc. The knowledge of the company’s safety policies

is also vital to make each dispatcher understand its own position as a safety agent on the

company’s operation.

b. Safety Assurance

The SMS applied in the dispatcher activity, has also the importance to assure the

flights are dispatched complying with the company’s and the manufacturer standards, and
 4

no deviation is done if not properly following minimum safety standards, safety

procedures, and respecting the company’s rules and local regulations.

c. Risk Management

Generally, unusual situations or any need of deviation from standards has a risk

involved, which must be managed between dispatcher and crew by dialoguing and finding

together safe solutions. When unusual situations occur in the flight planning phase, as

meteorology on minima, heavy takeoff, limited fuel operation, etc., they must be managed

with the dispatcher supervisor knowledge, taking second opinions prior to the final

definition.

d. Safety Promotion

The airline, by the use of its SMS, aims the safety promotion, and the same

principle is deployed into the dispatcher activity. Each dispatcher has the responsibility

to openly dialogue with pairs in the OCC (Operational Central Control) during

operational decisions evolving multiple departments, to communicate unsafe operations

and errors (even if own errors), and to interrupt any known unsafe operation to the flight.

As written before, each dispatcher has the responsibility to act as a safety agent to the

flight operations.

3. HAZARDS AND RISKS

The application of the SMS in the company also has the objective to identify

hazards in the flight dispatch activity, and the associated risk condition to the flight

operation, to be able to create mitigation plans and reduce the risk occurrence probability.

Generally, the flight dispatch activities may present hidden hazards to the crew

when they are flying the aircraft, once the nature of the activity occurs in the planning

level, so any error in this phase may deploy into a future unsafe situation on the flight.
 5

a. Flight Plan creation

The creation of the flight plan is an important activity, as it documents the flight

path (navigation), cruise level, fuel consumption, operation weights, etc. Some examples

of hazards and risks are The incorrect definition of the cruise level, which may represent

incorrect fuel consumption calculation and possible problems with air traffic; the

improper definition of arrivals and departure procedures, which may represent incorrect

fuel calculations; changing the standardized company routes, which may cause

divergences with aerospace rules.

b. Meteorology analysis

The meteorology analysis is a vital step in the dispatch activity, but must be done

in consonance with the flight plan, to ensure that meteorology is forecasted for each

specific areas (departure, alternative and destination airport), and each flight level, so the

crew is not surprised by an unknown meteorology condition.

The flight dispatcher must also be able to interpret METARs, TAFs messages,

and any other meteorology information to provide clear forecasting to the flight

conditions, to ensure that all mitigation actions are taken before risky conditions deploy

into unsafe situations in flight.

c. Aircraft loading

Another important step in the flight dispatch preparation is the proper load

distribution (passengers and cargo allocation), as incorrect CG (Center of Gravity),

positioning may deploy into problems on the aircraft control or excessive fuel

consumption during the cruise phase. The dispatcher must also be aware of aircraft

over/underloading, in order to respect the aircraft operational weights and not to dispatch

the aircraft out of its flight envelope, and possibly to cause maneuverability issues.
 6

d. Fuel quantity definition

The fuel quantity definition is the action of the dispatcher will to calculate the

fuel quantity for several situations and ensure that the flight crew will have enough fuel

to complete the flight safely and if needed, enough fuel for any contingency situation.

A part of the minimum required fuel, as per local regulations, dispatchers must

take into account adverse weather or heavy traffic situations to calculate additional

contingency fuel, and not causing an emergency on board due to low fuel level. Other

situations as changes on aircraft performance or operations in conditions of high fuel burn

rate are also the target of special fuel calculation to avoid low fuel situations on board.

4. CONTROLS

The above paragraph listed hazards and risks to the operation, which are only

acceptable in the flight operations if the minimum level of control is kept by the

organization. The below topics describes methods to controls hazards and keep the risk

within the acceptable level of probability to occur and not causing undesired situations.

a. Flight Plan creation

The flight plan is created using software, which is loaded with all aircraft

performance data, company routes data, and airport procedures standards. The flight

operations engineering department is responsible for keeping updated those databases, to

make the dispatch activity (in the software) purely operational, and avoiding incorrect

selections or definitions. In this case, the control method of the hazards is taken in the

database level, as dispatchers will only apply standardized information for the flight.

b. Meteorology analysis

To ensure that all the meteorology analysis is conducted properly, the company

has created a meteorology briefing form, which contains fields and minimum information
 7

to be added before presenting to the flight crew. Meteorology forecasts are done using

standard sources (Jeppesen software), to ensure that there is no dual interpretation and the

whole company works with single-sourced information. METARs, TAFs messages

interpretation is a usual part of the Dispatcher licensing but are also the target of recurrent

training to ensure the proficiency on it.

c. Aircraft loading

The existing hazards in the aircraft loading are mitigated by using a robust

software, which is loaded with a weight & balance database, containing each aircraft

configuration and its weights limitations. The software has several locks to prevent

over/underloading, or out of limits CG. The loading screen also presents an interactive

graph showing the CG over the flight envelope, supporting the load planner with

information to distribute loading to achieve to optimum CG position.

d. Fuel quantity definition

Fuel quantity is also the target of the flight plan software, which is loaded with

aircraft performance information, and fuel burn indexes to ensure that the final flight plan

is calculated with the correct fuel to the flight. However, situations as adverse weather or

heavy traffic are not part of the software database and must be handled case by case. In

those situations, supervisors has a briefing on the beginning of each shift to spread

information to all dispatchers regarding special situations of traffic, or upcoming adverse

weather and specific definitions to that shift (i.e. On a specific shift, which adverse

weather is expected in the terminal, all dispatchers are oriented to add 30 minutes of extra

fuel).
 8

5. SMS CONTROL TOOLS

• Engineering standardizing procedures, reducing calculation and intervention

• Internal audits for quality assurance

• External audits (IOSA, ANAC, Manufacturer, etc)

• AQD - Safety software for safety reports and proper treatment

• Safety department risk assessment for special/new activities and procedures

6. SMS CONTINOUS IMPROVEMENT

• Analysis of internal and external audits results

• Check the recurrent reports and responses to the safety reports on AQD

• Reassess operational procedures to meet safety standards

7. REFERENCES

• To be listed