SASO Current Status

In the coming months, SASO Program Office will focus on Safety Promotion and Safety Assurance.

Safety Promotion Outreach Team (SPOT) Briefings
As Flight Standards (AFS) continues to move towards a SAS environment, the SASO Program Office formed the new Safety Promotion Outreach Team to communicate SMS and system safety to the field. The Safety Promotion Outreach Team will educate the AFS workforce on SASO, SMS, and SAS; gather data from the field; and help develop field communication materials. SPOT will promote safety by briefing all AFS offices on SASO, SMS, and SAS beginning April 2009. SPOT members will be contacting each office to schedule a briefing and we encourage all office employees to attend.

AFS SAS Design
The next step towards an SMS environment is developing a Safety Assurance System (SAS) for AFS. SASO recently concluded a gap analysis that compared existing oversight processes in 14 CFR Part 121, 135, and 145 with functional requirements for a new Safety Assurance System (SAS). The analysis results showed what changes are needed in existing processes and tools to ensure consistency within the SAS, while utilizing these processes and tools to the greatest extent possible. To develop the AFS SAS, the SASO Program Office is bringing together numerous internal and external groups to design processes and tools to support risk-based oversight. Collaborative workgroups – which include participants from field offices and headquarters divisions – are working to provide, review, and verify information for the SAS. Participants in these workgroups reflect AFS’s diverse organization with members from different job roles and geographic locations. The workgroup activities began in November 2008 and will continue through September 2009.

Systems Alignment
Systems Alignment ensures that tools and technology are designed to better support AFS oversight processes. The SASO Program Office is leading the project management and implementation of many national applications impacting AFS offices and employees. Several systems will complete their transition to a Web environment in 2009, including Logbook, Flight Standards Automation Subsystems (FSAS), and the combination of AFS Operations Safety System (OPSS) and Industry Operations Safety System (IOPSS) into WebOPSS. The Master Minimum Equipment List (MMEL) Subsystem is also being updated.

Please see the Spring 2009 Systems Alignment Detailed Update (PDF) for more information on these applications, their planned improvements, and expected dates of completion.

The SASO Road Map (PDF) includes a timeline for the SASO program.