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The industry of aviation auditingAllister Polkinghorne

FIG 1 Comparative anlysis of xxx organisation

JOO( • Industry Average • Industry best pracllcc

Users of aviation services may not havea wide choice about which organisationthey use. The key for aviation users is se-lecting the organisation which presents arisk profile as low as reasonably practica-ble. Rather than provide a pass or fail as-sessment, some aviation auditors provide acomparative analysis based on industry av-erage and best practice compared with theorganisation under audit. With the com-parative standard, users are able to makea better informed choice about their avia-tion services provider. An example of thesummary information an industry auditormight produce is available at Figure 1.

In Figure 1, the yellow columns showthe result of the audit with the brownand the blue showing the industryaverage and industry best practice re-sults for the individual systems in anaviation company.

What does a good audit consist of?The audit standard very much determinesthe style of the audit. An audit is not anexhaustive look at an aviation organisa-tion. It takes a snapshot of various sys-tems within the organisation and theauditor makes assessment based on asample of data. Information collected inthe course of an audit should come from arange of sources. The easiest informationabout the systems of an aviation companycomes from the company documentationin the form of the OPc:rations Manual andsupporting systems s.uch as the SafetyManagement System. The subsystems ofthe SMS like the internal audit programalso provide some clues.

The systems of the company describedin the company documentation are thestart. The application of the document-ed systems is where the industry auditorneeds a thorough understanding of thetype of operation under audit. This enables

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If there is a maintenance organisation as-sociated with the company, auditors willwant to check that the practices are com-mensurate with producing serviceable, re-liable aircraft.

One of the requirements for any audit isthat there be a standard. For example, theISO 9001:2008, Quality Management Sys-tems, is a standard that is documented by theInternational Standards Organisation. CASAhas a regulatory standard based on a quali-tative assessment of pass or fail. The state-ments which the CASAauditorsuse are available on the CASAwebsite. Satisfaction of the audi-tor is the criterion CASAuses todetermine pass or fail.

In the case of the aviationindustry auditors, audit organ-isations have developed theirown standards against whichthey audit the industry. Insome instances this is a quali-tative standard. In other situa-tions the auditors use a seriesof statements and a graduatedscale to quantify the compli-ance with their standard.

Comparative analysis may be a more useful approach than a simple pass or fail result. (Qantasl

OVER THE LAST 15 years a group of peoplehas emerged as aviation industry audi-tors. Their work originally came from theoil industry but has now moved to covermining companies and government. Ap-proximately 20 aviation audit companiesoperate across Australia. Some also workinternationally.

The auditing industry is demand driven.Identifying those operators who deliver arisk profile as low as reasonably practica-ble drives the demand. A regulatory tickfrom CASA has, many times, failed to en-sure safety. Aviation services users want tobe reassured that companies have proce-dures and practices in place to produce therequired safety outcomes.

What do aviation auditors audit?Almost universally, industry auditors usea systems approach to aviation organisa-tions. Auditors want to see that there is asystem in place to manage the risks in arealistic and practical manner. As a start-ing point, auditors look for the basic doc-uments such as the AOC, public liability,passenger carrying and aircraft insuranc-es, rosters as well as flight and duty times.

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5 things to do before anaudit of your company

the auditor to determine how effectivelythe company procedures are being appliedand whether the documented proceduresreflect the practices of the organisation. Tothis end, auditors use observation flights,engineering inspections and discussionswith line staff about how a particular pro-cedure is implemented. These often pro-vide insights that are not apparent in thedocumented procedures.

At the conclusion of an audit, the auditorshould have a very good understanding offirstly the procedures of the organisationand secondly about how those proceduresare implemented and contribute to thesafety outcome of the organisation.

Presenting well at an AuditAviation companies that have good proce-dures in place and follow those proceduresin practice will find the audit process lessstressful than those organisations that arebluffing their way through.

Standing out most to industry auditorsare organisations that have collected a

range of opinions from auditors or regu-lators and tried adjust their manuals ona piecemeal basis to address the findingswithout looking carefully at the overall or-ganisation. The auditors quickly come tothe conclusion these organisations have noidea about the management task.

From a long-term perspective, organi-sations need to understand the risks theyface and put procedures in place to miti-gate those risks. Further, organisationsshould be prepared to put their case to au-ditors or regulators for the procedures theyhave in place as a method of mitigating thedocumented risks.

If a regulator or auditor raises issues thatthey feel should be covered in the companydocumentation, the question needs to beasked: 'What risk are we addressing?'

Allister Polkinghorne is an aviation man-agement consultant and industry auditorworking in Australia, Africa and SouthEast Asia. He is the Managing Director ofArgus Consulting Group.

1Check that flight on duty timerecords are up to date and verifiableagainst the aircraft maintenancereleases;

2 Ensure that all recurrent trainingis up to date and any discrepanciesnoted with a plan in place to do thetraining or not to use the relevantpilot where the recurrent trainingfalls short;

3Have a really could look over youraircraft. The industry auditor islikely that check anything that canbe checked on the ground pre-flight.This includes, lights, seat belts, testsystems, first aid kits, emergencysurvival kits and anything else thatis relevant;

4 Make sure that any unserviceabilitieson any aircraft are documentedin the maintenance release orequivalent document;

5Make sure that the EmergencyResponse Plan is relevant andup-to-date.

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