Story ID: 
FAA Awards SMS Approval to Constant Aviation
By: Jerry Siebenmark
Caption: During the year-long FAA SMS certification process, Constant has seen significant declines in incident severity and workplace injuries as well as costs.
Word Count: 188
Constant Aviation said the FAA has accepted its fully functional safety management system (SMS) as being in “active conformance” with the Part 5 Voluntary SMS Program, which is the final step in the regulator’s SMS process. As such, Constant is the fourth MRO out of the more than 4,500 maintenance organizations nationally and the first independent business jet MRO Part 145 repair station to achieve the designation for aviation maintenance safety and risk mitigation.

The Cleveland-based MRO provider has been operating under the processes for SMS approval for the past year and in that time has reduced incident severity and workplace injuries by more than 55 percent. Also, incident costs have been reduced by 200 percent and the company has seen direct cost savings of $250,000.

“Implementation of SMS across our entire network has revolutionized how we approach safety,” said Constant v-p of quality, safety, and training Kent Stauffer. “Involvement in risk mitigation on this level allows us to anticipate where we will see hazards, furthering our ability to prevent those hazards from becoming safety incidents. That reduces incidents and incident severity, prevents injuries, and reduces costs.”