Clay Lacy Aviation said the FAA has validated its safety management system (SMS), positioning the company among the few Part 135 operators that meet the standards of the agency’s SMS voluntary program.
FAA validation places Los Angeles-based Clay Lacy among 2% of Part 135 operators that have completed the SMS voluntary qualification process, the company said March 28. A Clay Lacy team began work to expand an existing SMS to meet the FAA’s voluntary program standards two years earlier.
The SMS affects all components of the company’s operations, including aircraft management and maintenance, charter operations and FBO services, Clay Lacy said. One outcome of the new SMS was to identify and assess a potential hazard from a thermal runaway of lithium batteries during flight. Clay Lacy flight crews have been trained to respond to such an event, and aircraft are equipped with thermal runaway bags.
The NTSB since 2016 has recommended that Part 135 charter operators have SMS programs. In 2021, the safety board reported that only 20 of 1,940 Part 135 certificate holders had FAA-accepted SMS programs, while another 213 were in various stages of the acceptance process.
In January, the FAA released a draft regulation that would require all Part 135 charter and Part 91.147 air tour operators to implement SMS programs within two years of a final rule being published. The public comment deadline for the new rule is April 11.
Clay Lacy said it has already exceeded the requirements of a new SMS mandate.
“Clay Lacy has a commitment and priority to safety, continuous improvement and enhancing our safety culture to be proactive and predictive to address problems before they occur,” said Chief Operating Officer David Lamb. “We are going above and beyond what the FAA is requiring because we recognize the importance and benefits of having a holistic, organizational approach to safety operations.”
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