Craig Erickson: managing safety for a large fleet operator

Craig Erickson took over as safety program manager for Solairus Aviation more than six years ago after his predecessor was promoted to assistant chief pilot (later chief pilot). Erickson studied safety management systems in college and after learning to fly, worked in the air-medical industry in dispatcher roles, eventually joining TriState CareFlight in Utah as dispatch supervisor. After taking on the safety program manager role at Solairus, Erickson stepped up the company’s participation in safety programs and employee participation.

Q: You're responsible for safety programs for the whole operation?

A: That incorporates our entire safety management system [SMS], which goes through our safety audits, safety risk management through our reporting systems, and our safety policies.

Q: SMS is foundational to everything else, right? But the FAA still doesn’t require SMS for Part 135 or Part 91 operators.

A: It really is. Solaris has had an SMS since basically day one. It definitely has taken some time to further develop it and enhance it and make it more usable.

Every person that comes to Solairus, it doesn't matter your position, you're going to receive SMS training and also emergency response training. It's one of those core foundational pillars of our organization that continues to develop. If we ever just think that we have arrived, that we are safe, we're fooling ourselves. There should never be a time to say, "Okay, we've made it. We are completely done with safety, we’ve achieved the highest." That's never gonna happen. There's always something we can do to continually improve the safety of our operation.

Q: Was the SMS developed in-house or did you work with an outside vendor?

A: We go through external audits and we take those best practices that are continually evolving and incorporate that into our organization. By having those audits and evaluations, it helps us to say, "Maybe we're missing something, or we're deficient here, or we need to explore something to help us to make sure that we are always looking for [improvement]."

Q: You don't mind having multiple audits from different organizations?

A: We want people to find things. We can't fix things if we don't know about any deficiencies we have. Audits are tough and designed to be stressful and push you through the wringer. But I expect that, and if it was easy, then that's a problem. I want these to expose whatever weakness we have so we can strengthen that.

Q: The SMS is an active hands-on program. It's not a book that sits on a shelf and never gets looked at.

A: That's exactly right. It is a living, breathing thing in our organization. It doesn't matter if it's one of our frontline pilots, a maintenance supervisor, even our office staff or charter sales folks, or accounting, everybody is involved with our safety management system. Everybody receives recurrent SMS training, of course on different levels according to their specific job function. But it's a great opportunity to let people know we are actively trying to make things better for them in their workplace and the job that they're doing.

Q: Can you give an example of how the SMS enhances safety and how Solairus has used it to mitigate the risk of a particular hazard?

A: Every flight goes through a flight release process. During that process, we look at a lot of different factors. Are the pilots qualified to go? Is the airplane legal? Are there operational concerns? And we find these things through our flight risk assessment tool [FRAT]for every single leg. Through that we can identify a records problem, maybe a medical that's expired, or a maintenance limitation. That’s a great opportunity for us to look at that. And then what other risks are they going to encounter during that flight?

The flight crew has that discussion as part of their pre-flight briefing to say, "We are legal. We've identified the risks through our FRAT, and we are good to go. We think we've mitigated those." We have our fatigue management system that's baked into our processes, where if there's a fatiguing situation, we'll hit that before the trip and put in mitigating factors. That's been a game-changing element for us.

Q: A mitigating factor might be getting a fresher pilot to take over or shortening the trip?

A: Something like that. With our fatigue management system, we have an analysis that we can do to adjust the trip, [such as adjusting to] the circadian rhythm that is more amenable to that pilot's schedule. We can suggest that or we can augment the trip or have a third crew member that will switch out on the flight. We found that not only do our flight crews like that, the folks that own the aircraft like that added sense of security.

Q: Does having a robust safety program help with selling the product to potential owners?

A: That's a good question. I don't deal with dollars and cents. I'm glad that I don’t. I don't have to worry about, "is this a cost," because safety is the most important value that we have at Solairus. I just communicate that to the executive that's with that aircraft and say, "We have a concern here," and let them have that discussion. Very rarely do we have any pushback. Recently we had to adjust a trip and put limitations on one of our helicopters because we identified there were some risks with turbulence and other IFR problems where they were flying. I just talked to the crew, they were saying how the owner is grateful that we put those in and looking out for their overall safety.

Q: Obviously we know of accidents where the owners have tried to influence the flight crew, but it sounds like the Solairus owners appreciate knowing that you're looking after them.

A: Exactly. Those conversations happen well before they are signed on with us.

Q: When you onboard a new owner, how do they learn about this whole safety philosophy?

A: Our executive team, it's one of their topics of concern that they bring up and they let them know, you are going to be watched over just like it's one of our own family members that's going to be on that aircraft. You can expect that we will do everything in your best interest to get you to your destination safely. It's that oversight that helps them feel assured that they’ve signed on with an organization that values that as a core belief.

Q: How would an SMS at Solaris work, looking at that recent accident in San Diego, where the pilots are repositioning after an aeromedical flight, a short distance and relatively familiar airport? They decided to do a nonstandard maneuver that got them into trouble.

A: That goes back to our flight risk assessment that we're doing before each trip. It’s not something that's treated casually. It's a serious step, it’s very intentional. We want to make sure everybody in the organization is doing intentional actions, everything from pre-flight planning to the walkaround of their aircraft, to setting up the FMS prior to the trip, to every single thing that's gonna happen with that trip. They have intentional actions of what they're doing so that complacency doesn't creep in, or just out of habit. 

Q: So how do you, as the leader of the safety program, monitor everyone's compliance and participation and make sure that you're communicating this philosophy to everybody at the same time?

A: Number one, our safety reporting system is a non-punitive reporting system. If people have made a mistake, or lapse, or have had a problem, they're not going to get blasted by that. We're going to have a conversation to help understand and do a root cause analysis of what led to that decision or that event. And based on those, we'll take corrective actions. Was there a procedural problem? A training issue? A behavioral problem? What can we do as an organization to provide resources to our folks, so that doesn't happen again? Then communicating that back to the rest of our company.

We have what's called a client aviation manager call where we invite all the CAMs (client aviation managers) to join online. We have a series of discussions, whether it's a leadership module or maybe a maintenance module. I always have a safety presentation where I can tell people about the risks that we've identified, and here's what we're doing to mitigate those risks. Just to make it more aware. Awareness is probably the number one way we can help curb any kind of problems that we're seeing. Awareness of the issue and how to mitigate those.

Q: So during this CAM meeting, can you give an example?

A: I was able to provide some information about our safety performance indicators. What we're tracking, how many reports we're seeing, what kind of risks the reports are identifying, and what we're doing to mitigate those risks. I gave some fairly specific things to our folks in the last call of what we're seeing. We identified the top three risks and what we're doing to help them to mitigate those risks. Then we went into other things like SAFA checks. That’s a big deal right now. So I provided some specific things to identify on their trips to make sure that everything is checked out. I also gave them some resources internally that we have available, some checklist items.

Q: Does Solairus participate in an aviation safety action program (ASAP)?

A: We do have that set up, and the Air Charter Safety Foundation is our mediator. We have a call with the event review committee, and every two months with the FAA, where we go through our ASAP reports. For our first year in 2021 when we had the ASAP, we had about 26 reports. For the first three quarters this year, we've had 46 reports. It doesn't necessarily tell me that we were having more problems. [We] are transitioning from what was the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System [ASRS], and now we’re using our system for identifying those. And that's great, because if it went through the NASA ASRS, we don't know about that unless they come and tell us. Now, through the ASAP, we're receiving these reports and having those conversations, and we’re identifying the risks and getting information. Of course, we de-identify all of our information before we share any situations that have happened. And we share that through our safety newsletter every month. A lot of times we'll have reports come in and our flight crews or maintenance folks will say, "Hey, I had this happen to me. Make sure you let other people know." And so it's taking ownership. The best part is the data sharing to everybody. That's been a fun thing to see that has been enhanced and is improving on a month-by-month basis.

Q: Do safety performance indicators get updated?

A: Those will change as we identify new things. They're different now than they were four years ago. Some of them have stayed because they're valuable pieces of information. Other things like our fatigue management system, there's a lot of opportunity to learn more. How many times do we have a fatigue assessment that needs to be done, and what have we done for those risk assessments? Those safety performance indicators help us to tailor programs to what we need to address risk and mitigate it to the lowest level possible.

Q: Is a robust safety program an attractive element of working at a company like Solairus?

A: I don't get involved with interviews, but everybody knows the operators that aren't at the top level of safety and [not] taking safety seriously. Some of them are just after making as much money and getting as many flights as they can. But I think our name, our brand is synonymous with safety and our approach to safety management.

Q: As an industry, how do we share the importance of that and try to elevate them?

A: I talk to a lot of other safety operators, I start with the ACSF data-sharing network. We're part of that. Every six months there's the info share conference that we attend where we are gleaning a lot of information about what else is happening in the industry. What's said there, it stays there. But we can internalize some of those principles, and the data that's being shared there is helping us identify opportunities to improve. I try to stay in communication with other safety managers.

All of us are experiencing the over-pressurization of the industry, where we're being expected to do more with fewer resources. That's where we have to share that information and say, "Look, we're not going to fly to this location because we see it as a risk." I share that information with others. "Hey, are you doing this trip? Are you having this problem?" I was recently at a conference where we had about 20 other safety operators, and all of us were saying, "We have to as an industry come together to stop having these accidents and these events happen."

With our collective data, we can make some headway with this. We can help prevent, let's say, hangar rash events from happening. That's probably one of the biggest external threats that we have right now. The parking ramps are so congested, the hangers are so crammed. Unfortunately, we're finding that most of the line service folks are new or don't have a lot of experience, and therefore making decisions, moving aircraft, that put us in a squeeze. We're having those conversations with the FBOs. As safety professionals, I know all of us are feeling this.

Q: What are you doing to reduce hangar rash?

It got curbed during the pandemic, but we're doing base safety audits. We'll travel to the location where our aircraft are based and do a full audit of the location. We are discussing with the FBO what their training standards are and how they're training and to what standard. But we're also talking to the fuelers out there as well.

Q: They probably don't get much attention.

A: They don't. One guy [I met with], he'd been doing fueling for years, and he said, ‘You're the first person that's come out to talk with us about this. And he appreciated it. He and I had been sharing what's happening there and other things that I'm seeing across the country at other FBOs. And I had to tell him, "I think you're doing really good for what you have going here." He has limited resources and limited communication. That's what we're trying to do, at least here in Solairus, is to improve that margin of safety.

Q: Do you feel like you've been able to move the needle?

A: I think in some ways we have. Because then expectations are realigned, right? We go out with our FBOs and say, "You need to have two wing walkers when moving the aircraft. You need to keep three feet around this airplane at all times." So we don't have wingtips contacting other airplanes, hanger walls, or APU carts. I think in some ways we have made a little bit of an improvement. We have a long ways to go, no doubt. Because that turnover rate is always happening. So some things may not change for a while, but it's the awareness factor that we're looking at.

Q: There’s a school of thought that instead of firing someone for making a mistake, we should view it as an opportunity to teach and that afterward, that person will never again make that mistake.

A: We've seen a similar thing. By doing that approach it creates ownership. It creates buy-in and a true shared sense of responsibility for that airplane. They don't treat it like just another job. When I was going to college, I was working at Delta Air Lines on the ramp, and I was pushing out L-1011s with 300-plus people on board. I had no idea the risk that I was undertaking, no idea whatsoever, and nobody ever explained it to me. I look at that now, holy cow, what was I thinking? But if we can help people understand the true risk that they're undertaking by moving these aircraft, by being part of the system, then hopefully it will help to curb some of those unfavorable events that we’ve seen happen.

Q: How do you actively work with nearly 300 aircraft and hundreds of outlying operations?

A: We have an all-crew call where everybody gets online a couple of times a year. And we have our base audit program, we visit folks. I'm constantly in communication through email and phone calls, at all hours of the day and night. Our safety committee meets regularly. We’ve been trying to make sure people don't feel like they're on an island out there all by themselves, and having that constant communication. The CAMs are doing a good job of portraying the information that needs to seep down into the ranks. Then if I need to get involved, say on a specific group like all the Challenger 604 crew or all the pilots flying G650s, I can send information to them.

Q: What are some of the ideas you're thinking about pursuing next to enhance the safety program?

A: One that we're actively part of, and we have been for quite some time, is moving into the FAA’s Part 5, the voluntary SMS program. We signed on to that pre-pandemic. The issue that we've run into though is that our FSDO doesn't have the properly trained people to bring us up to that level. We're ready to do our gap analysis and our [data collection tools] to show that we are ready to move forward. That's the next big thing, and I anticipate that'll be happening sooner than later. I think will help us to move that needle a little bit more.

Q: This is going to be a more formal acknowledgment of the SMS?

A: It's an accepted and adopted program by the FAA. And the compliance part as well. It's not just a one and done, there's a compliance mechanism [with] another audit, which is great. I welcome that. At the highest levels of aviation, the Part 121 carriers have been doing this for several years. They had to adopt Part 5 [SMS], but Part 91 and 135 operators don't have to have any SMS at all. This is a great opportunity for us to say we want to be operating at the highest levels possible when it comes to safety.

Q: There are many new entrants to business aviation. Do you think they understand the safety needs of this industry?

A: We need to make sure that the people that we're flying understand that we're going to try to get them to their destination but if there is any kind of safety element or problem, we're going to deal with it. If we have to divert to another airport because we can't get in because of weather, we're not going to push it. We're going to explain to them, we can't do this, but here's the other options. You always try to look for solutions instead of just saying, "No, we can’t." Because oftentimes there are other safer solutions that will work with what that person is expecting to have happen.

Q: When there is an actual safety situation, who can raise their hand and put a halt to things until you can look at it and say, "Okay, we shouldn't do this," or, "There is a safety issue." Can anybody do that? And do you encourage it?

A: Every person has the ability to stop and just say, "We need to reevaluate." We expect that. They’re being paid to say, "Wait, this doesn't look good," or, "We need to reevaluate this," or "We need to do a timeout and reevaluate what we're doing and get a new game plan together." We encourage them and reward them to say, "This didn't look good and that's why we stopped." And never will they ever be blasted for doing that. We're starting to turn that tide. I think a little that the old school used to get slammed for saying, "Stop" or for not going with the flow. But those are the times when we need people to do that, when they truly see a threat to their safety, or others, or the aircraft.

It's better to stop and re-evaluate something than to let something happen, and then we're in a worse position. Everybody is encouraged and expected to do that. In our safety policy statement, it says that we have a shared responsibility. The employee is expected to do whatever they need to do to make things safer. The company will do whatever we can on our side to have better policies, procedures, training, and feedback so that they can remain as safe as possible and always have a way to have their head on a swivel and never take it for granted. Just always be ready for those threats that are out there.

Q: Do the people at Solairus take that seriously? Are they willing to raise their hand?

A: We've seen it several times where people said, "Okay, wait, we only have two wing walkers. We need a third one before we're gonna start towing this airplane or moving the aircraft." Or if we're taxing in and we only see the marshall out there without wing walkers, we'll hold our position here until you get those people in place. Empowering people to do that, to make those decisions, usually [results in] good circumstances afterward. We have people that are not injured, aircraft that are not damaged, and ownership that develops with people saying, "I can make these decisions and not fear retribution."

Q: Are you happy with Solairus’s progress in safety?

A: It's been fun to see it evolve from when I started. And I'm excited to see where it's going to go. We've had incredible resources to help us to get where we're at today. We won't be sleeping on this at all. There won't be a time when we think we've arrived. I'm hopeful that we can keep up with the challenges that are ahead of us, and I think we will we'll meet those challenges head-on and come out successful.