Looking Beyond Safety Management Systems to Risk IQ
David Soucie, owner of Sans Soucie Enterprises and author of Why Planes Crash - An Accident Investigator Fights for Safe Skies, spoke at Volpe about what he called "risk IQ," which relates to how an organization measures its own safety culture, on September 13, 2011. Having worked as an aviation safety inspector and accident investigator, among other roles, for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from 1990 to 2006, Soucie has made it his mission to improve aviation safety—something he writes about in his newly published memoir.
During his talk, Soucie challenged listeners to examine their thinking about safety, saying that many organizations fail to even recognize risks or hazards. Organizations can become complacent if they do not recognize changes in their environment, which includes recognizing potential threats as well as opportunities, he said. There is also danger in becoming over reliant on institutionalized behavior and in placing other priorities above safety.
About the Speaker
David Soucie is the owner of Sans Souci Enterprises, LLC., a catastrophe and disaster recovery company based in Colorado. He works with the FAA as a member of the Safety Management Implementation (SMI) Committee, a Joint Planning and Development Office Working Group, and serves on the Safety Management Systems focus group in Washington, D.C. Previously, he was an aviation safety inspector and the National Business Process and Information Technology lead for FAA. Before this, Soucie also served as the senior director of technical services for Air Methods Inc., which has recently become the largest helicopter emergency medical operation in the world. Skyhorse Publishing New York, NY, has recently published his book Why Planes Crash—An Accident Investigator Fights for Safe Skies, which provides insight and understanding about how to improve and prepare today's safe aviation system for tomorrow.
*The views of this presenter do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
View the video from this event.