Assignment 1 Submission: Sunday 1 July 2022 Hand in your answers to all the Exercises contained in Units 1 to 4 (inclusive).
Exercise 1
1.1 Provide a dot point summary of some of the safety issues for the aviation industry that has arisen as a result of COVID 19.
1.2 Give an account of the two commonly held perceptions of safety. Discuss the merits of each and state whether you consider it is an advantage, to society in general, that both exist simultaneously.
1.3 If you arrive at your destination on a charter flight after having had a very near mid-air collision, did you have a safe flight? Was your flight hazardous? Explain.
1.4 Discuss the importance of a safety culture within an organisation.
1.5 What is your understanding of the difference between affordable safety and acceptable safety?
1.6 Research the internet (or elsewhere) to find an authoritive assessment of the cost of a human life - in Australia or overseas - so that you understand the methodology. Can a cost benefit assessment of safety be justified on moral grounds?
Exercise 2
2.1 Give an overview of one specific area of concern when analysing safety data.
2.2 If safety cannot be measured directly how then can one assess whether the level of safety is improved?
2.3 Using one of the following events:
- the terrorists events of 9-11
- Flight MH 370
- Flight MH17 OR
- the German Wings accident make an assessment as to whether this event was an unknown risk or whether it ‘ought’ to have been reasonable foreseen (by the relevant risk assessment stakeholders - airlines, regulators etc. You may need to consider the legal notion of ‘reasonable foreseeability’ to make an ‘objective’ assessment rather than a ‘subjective’ assessment. (See: ‘Causal Nexus’ in Unit 3)
2.4 What is Bowtie analysis? Provide an example of an Australian organisation that has used it as a means of managing risk.
2.5 How does your organisation measure risk? Or if not employed: How important a tool do you consider the construction of a risk hazard matrix?
Exercise 3
In approximately 500 words give an overview of the application of Professor James Reason’s accident causation model to the management of safety within a civil aviation or ADF organisation.
Unit 3
Accident Causation
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5. A decision-maker must act on the basis of evidence, not mere supposition or speculation.
6. A decision-maker must not formulate requirements in vague or uncertain terms.
7. A decision-maker must not inflexibly apply policy (although departures from policy will normally need to be justified).
8. A decision-maker must not act under dictation (although this does not preclude adherence to formal directions, compliance with lawful conditions in relation to the process by which a decision is taken or the obligation to consult in the process of considering a decision).
9. A decision-maker must decide the matter within a reasonable time.
10. A decision maker must not act in a way that is manifestly unreasonable. A decision must not be so unreasonable that no reasonable person would make such a decision.
Exercise 4
4.1 Compare and contrast the traditional approach to air safety regulation to CASA’s current policy in this area.
4.2 Describe, with examples, what is meant by a systems approach to safety regulation. Does the checking or testing of ‘end products’ still provide and benefits to the regulator?
4.3 Give an overview of Australia’s current regulatory framework. Do you think that the FAA in the United States has conflicting objectives in terms of their safety regulatory structures? (Hint: As was the case with Australia’s pre 1995 when CAA was split into safety regulator (CASA) and aviation service provider (Airservices Australia).
4.4 In point 7 above re “A decision-maker must not inflexibly apply policy” find and summarise a case appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in which this principle has been applied.
4.5 Do you think that CASA’s current enforcement policy is adequate? If not, what would you change to achieve better safety outcomes?