A Bell 412, ASW (antisubmarine warfare) variant, during sling-load training. Operations such as these benefit from thorough risk assessment and management. (Tom King/RSG AeroDesign Photo) Use a FRAT to Avoid Going SPLAT A step-by-step process for managing operational risk. By Dan Deutermann How much risk should a vertical aviation operator be willing to take in their daily flight operations? That’s a fairly difficult question to answer, given the wide variety of sectors and operations in the industry. But whatever services you provide with an aircraft, it’s incumbent on you to seek and understand the particular hazards you face in your work and take the time to analyze the risks they pose. Managing dynamic helicopter operations, unpredictable weather in remote areas, and flying up close and personal to physical hazards are just some of our routine challenges in vertical aviation—and they all come bearing different levels of risk. This is a principal reason risk management is one of the components of a safety management system (SMS). Sometimes the hard part of assessing flight risks is explaining how much risk you’ll accept in a meaningful way. One resource that can help you convey risk throughout your operation is a flight risk assessment tool (FRAT). If you take the time to customize a FRAT, it can be a powerful discussion aid. FRATs can set the stage for how we treat matters in the air and can highlight where we need to apply some extra effort to stay within our established risk tolerance. This form of risk management is known as operational risk management (ORM). Why “operational?” Because we want to start speaking beyond “tabletop talk” and understand effective methods that will lower the scare factor after we’ve pulled pitch and are now face-to-face with a known hazard that can kill us! Risk Management, Step by Step Identification: The first step in ORM is developing awareness of the hazards you encounter as an operator. This involves initiatives to identify relevant mechanical, environmental, and human hazards as comprehensively as possible. You can do this through brainstorming in safety meetings or trending your hazard reports. If you’re just now exploring an SMS because of the new FAA regulatory requirements, know that hazard reporting is a key function of an SMS that ties directly to your risk-management efforts. A starting point may be to cut and paste a known list of hazards, but for ORM to actually work you need that “buy-in” from operators who can describe hazards from their perspective. Take weather, for example. If you’re a small tour operator flying in a VMC/VFR-only helicopter and you fly in a place that routinely has crummy weather, then inadvertent entry into instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC) is a hazard you want on your list. Assessment: To be clear, maintaining hazard awareness serves only to illuminate the path ahead. The next step in operational risk management is understanding the probability and severity of the identified hazards, assessing how likely it is you’ll encounter them, and what the consequences might be if you do. Combine the suspected probability and severity, plus the likelihood of an encounter, and the “face” of risk begins to emerge. Continuing with the air tour operator and weather example, although the probability of going IIMC may be low because of a company policy mandating VFR-only operations, encountering lousy weather nonetheless will definitely drive the fun meter to zero. Fold in the reality of where you fly, and this identified hazard demands that you address it as a priority, to help mitigate it and lower the risk level associated with it. Communication: Your assessment must then be shared among all stakeholders, from the front office to the hangar deck to those engaged in actual aviation. Keeping open lines of communication about safety is a critical feature of risk management that encourages everyone to come together and agree on the true operational risks your organization is taking. So, if it’s raining and the ceilings appear lower than usual, everyone should know they shouldn’t see a tour leaving the airport. That just wouldn’t be right, would it? Mitigation: Once the potential hazards are identified, assessed, and shared with the team, the focus can shift to mitigation. Seek out strategies to reduce risk levels, such as investing in advanced training or new technologies or communicating standard operating procedures (SOPs) designed to deal with the hazard. Ultimately, it falls to the operator who must deal with hazards in real time to ask, “What can be done to lower the scare factor in flight? How do we take feasible steps to dilute apprehension and let us pull pitch and enjoy the work?” Back to IIMC for the tour operator example. You may elect to establish more-conservative weather minimums and call out conditions in your operation’s manual or SOPs that flat out prohibit departure on a revenue flight. When someone asks, why do we limit ourselves like this? The direct answer is, because you studied the hazard; it’s a hard reality that affects your operation; everyone understands that where you routinely fly, you can routinely encounter adverse weather conditions; and this is your way to spell it out in neon letters and demonstrate your risk posture. As alluded to previously, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all doctrine. Shift the air tour operation to another outfit working out of the same hangar doing VIP commutes in a multi-engine, dual-pilot IMC/IFR-capable bird. Inadvertent IMC may still be a hazard, but the severity for that operation may not be so bad because, as a mitigation, they elected to have a policy in place to always file IFR for their missions and leverage crew resource management and all the technology on board as SOP. Acceptance: Once mitigation efforts are massaged to a reasonable level, the final and often overlooked step is acceptance of the risk that remains—call it “residual risk.” Starting at the top, the accountable executive must personally evaluate and acknowledge residual risks to establish the organization’s risk posture—a posture that must be aligned with those who conduct the daily operations. An Ongoing Process Despite all efforts on the ground, we in aviation will still encounter hazards—it’s simply part of the world of our work. But aircrews will be afforded more options to alter or abandon the mission plan if they know they can’t accept additional risk beyond what’s stated in their company policies. A FRAT opens up discussion about risk for an upcoming flight. Aircrews can talk about the hazards that may be more relevant today than yesterday, fostering a mindset to potentially help break the accident chain and get the job done. After all, you did all that work to mitigate a hazard, and now, in flight, you can leverage your strategy by expressly avoiding certain things when a hazard presents itself. Operational risk management is an ongoing process that requires continual effort. Healthy discussion and trend analysis of safety events will enable you to manage both known and newly discovered hazards. The goal isn’t to eliminate risk but to keep it as low as reasonably possible. Dan Deutermann has been involved in rotary-wing aviation for 30 years. He has extensive experience in aviation safety and helicopter flight instruction. ORM in the Classroom What: “Operational Risk Management for Helicopter Operations” Elevations course When: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Mar. 10, 2025 Where: VERTICON 2025, Dallas, Texas Content: The class will teach participants how to develop their own ORM programs using practical exercises and tools that can be tailored for their organizations More info: Visit verticon.org/education
