SM ICG Showcases Canadian Aviation Industry Innovation in Vibrant Toronto

Toronto, Ontario lived up to its international reputation on May 8, with Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA) hosting the 19th Safety Management International Collaboration Group (SM ICG) meeting in the city over the span of five days. 36 representatives from 17 member authorities gathered for a full day plenary session and three working meeting days, as well as an Industry Day outreach event with representatives from 32 Canadian aviation industry organizations. Industry Day marks a unique opportunity for aviation service providers in Canada to hear directly from authorities that are working together and for those authorities to receive feedback on SM ICG products. The full day session included nine presentations and an open discussion on data-informed decision making.

The SM ICG was established in 2009 to promote a common understanding of safety management principles and requirements, facilitating their application across the international aviation community. Since its formation, the group has published 25 products and several have been translated into French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. In recent years, the SM ICG has increased outreach to the greater international aviation community. The inaugural Industry Day event took place in Ottawa, Canada in 2012 with subsequent events held in The Hague, Netherlands, Seattle, Washington, USA, Bern, Switzerland, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Cologne, Germany, Vancouver, Canada, Rome, Italy, Miami, Florida, USA, Gatwick, United Kingdom, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

François Collins, Director General of Civil Aviation at Transport Canada, kicked off the day saying, “It is pretty rare to have representatives from so many authorities and industry in one room. I am confident the collaboration and discussions that take place today will be valuable for initiating the sharing of lessons learned and achieving a common understanding of safety management principles, which upholds the spirit of SM ICG.” After opening remarks, two Transport Canada staff and seven industry representatives (Nancy Rockbrune, International Air Transport Association (IATA); Sherry Reid and Donnie O’Connor, Transport Canada; Bilal Mouralli, Independent Consultant; Josh Ogden, Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions Inc.; Mike Hoodspith, Periculum Labs Inc.; Geert Bos, Vancouver International Airport; Larry Lachance, NAV CANADA; John Gronlund, Porter Airlines; and Slawko Borys, Air Canada Rouge) presented their experiences with and perspectives on data-informed decision making. Those Industry Day speaker biographies and presentations are available for download at the bottom of this page.

Industry Day participants discussed data-informed decision making in their organizations. Topics included the value of data and safety information protection, non-punitive reporting, unstructured data, social media mining, data integration, analysis, and reporting, making sure analysis is defensible, using controlled data inputs and standardized taxonomy, safety information exchange programs, targeted inspections, and using resources in areas of greatest risk. Geert Bos, Director of Airside Operations at Vancouver International Airport, valued the discussion, urging participants to “Work with your regulator. If you do not, you might end up with a system that does not work for you. It is in your interest as a [service provider] to educate your regulator and create understanding of hazards, causes, and contributing factors.”

Claudio Trevisan, Head of Air Operations Department at the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and 2018 SM ICG Chair, gave an overview of the SM ICG and its work. He thanked industry participants and encouraged them to visit SM ICG content on SKYbrary, concluding, “The SM ICG is a unique assembly of authority experts in safety management. We want to interact with you, get feedback on our products and tools, and get insight into what tools you need or would like us to develop. We are putting into a place an industry consultation mechanism to get your input on SM ICG products under development, so that our efforts will continue to be useful to the global aviation community.”

Industry Presenter Biographies

Nancy Rockbrune

Head, Safety Management Systems, Safety and Flight Operations, International Air Transportation Association (IATA) SMM and the Safety Possibilities with Good Data Bio: Nancy has been at IATA for over seven years in her role as Head, Safety Management Systems. She is responsible for managing all of IATA’s SMS programs and activities. She facilitates Industry’s further understanding and implementation of SMS, while also defining and promoting SMS requirements and policies with States, Aviation Groups and other International Organizations. Nancy is also the IATA member of the ICAO Safety Management Panel (SMP), and Rapporteur of one of the working groups.

Sherry Reid

Manager, Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Transport Canada Civil Aviation Transport Canada’s Vision for Data Informed Decision Making Bio: Sherry Reid manages the National Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS) and leads the development and establishment of methodologies and procedures for the research, collection, quality assurance and analysis of data required for the production of aviation safety intelligence. Recently, Sherry managed the development of Business Intelligence Infrastructure project (BII).

Donnie O’Connor

Civil Aviation Safety Inspector, Program Evaluation, Standards, Transport Canada Civil Aviation Targeted Inspections: An Introduction to a New TCCA Surveillance Tool Bio: Donnie O’Connor came to Transport Canada in March 2014 from the private sector, where he spent 10 years in quality management as Corporate Quality Manager for an Airport Security firm and as a consultant working with various clients, including the aviation industry, specializing in ISO 9001 quality management systems. Donnie is a member of ICAO’s Global Aviation Safety Plan Study Group and ICAO’s Safety Performance Indicator Task Force.

Bilal Mouralli

Independent Consultant Predictive SMS Bio: Bilal is the owner and operator of Flight Safety Management. He has had positions like Flight Crew Member, Flight Instructor, Flight Follower, Flight Operations Administrator, Manager of SMS, Flight Safety Officer, Auditor, and many others. The area of which he is focused on improving is Safety Management.

Josh Ogden

Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions Inc. Social Media Mining for Risk Analysis Bio: Josh is a Co-Founders and CEO of AVSS. Josh has worked as a nomadic consultant in four continents, and worked in leadership roles with a diverse group of technology companies (e.g., Mobile First, Artificial Intelligence, Renewable Energy, Data Analytics). At AVSS, Josh is responsible for leading investor relationships, the growth of the company in export markets, managing research projects, and working alongside partners to ensure the safe introduction of innovative technologies into airspace.

Mike Hoodspith

Vice President Strategic Relationships, Periculum Labs Inc. Decision Intelligence for Unmanned Aircraft Bio: Michael Hoodspith has over 25+ years' executive management, international, government and domestic sales, marketing and business development. Over his 20 years in the aviation industry, his roles included Chief Operating Officer, Vice-President Strategy and Operations, Director, Strategy & Advanced Programs, Director, Business Development and Sales, and Regional Sales Manager. Mike is an expert in UAS/RPAS airspace integration and small UAS (sUAS) low altitude ecosystem management systems.

Geert Bos

Vancouver International Airport Lessons Learned & Best Practices in Data Collection

Larry Lachance

Vice president, Safety and Quality, NAV CANADA NAV CANADA’s Plan for Data-Informed Decision Making Bio: Larry Lachance is responsible for the NAV CANADA safety management program which provides internal safety oversight of the management of operational risk as required by the Canadian Aviation Regulations. His responsibilities include establishing safety policy, assessing the effectiveness of risk management policies, practices and procedures and collecting and analyzing risk-related data. He was the designated Canadian representative on the ICAO North Atlantic System Planning Group (NAT SPG) from 2007 until June 2014.

John Gronlund

Director, Flight Operations, Porter Airlines Reporting and Analysing Data Equals Positive Safety Outcomes Bio: Porter airlines is a regional airline headquartered in Toronto. John Gronlund began his flying career in Canada's arctic, flying Twin Otters on skis, floats, and tundra tires. From there, John was hired to fly the Dash 8 Q400 for Porter Airlines in their inaugural class of pilots in 2006. He became a Training Captain 2011, and the Manager of Pilot Training in 2014. More recently, John became the Director of Flight Operations, managing an operation of 29 Q400 and 280 pilots based in Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax.

Slawko Borys

Director Safety, Security & Regulatory Affairs, Air Canada Rouge Using Data to Strengthen Safety Performance Bio: In his role as Director Safety, Security & Regulatory Affairs, Slawko is the designated “Person Managing the SMS” and responsible for the day to day management of the company’s Safety & Security programs as well as Regulatory Affairs. Prior to joining Air Canada Rouge, Mr. Borys was the Manager Flight Operations QA at Air Canada. Mr. Borys was also part of the start-up team at Sunwing Airlines, where he was the Manager Flight Operations from 2005-2010. He has also held various roles in the Flight Operations Departments at other Canadian carriers from 2000-2005.

Download Presentations

• Full Industry Day Article
• Presenter Biographies
• Industry Day Participant List
• SMM and the Safety Possibilities with Good Data by Nancy Rockbrune (International Air Transport Association (IATA))
• Transport Canada’s Vision for Data Informed Decision Making by Sherry Reid (Transport Canada)
• Targeted Inspections: An Introduction to a New TCCA Surveillance Tool by Donnie O’Connor (Transport Canada)
• Predictive SMS by Bilal Mouralli (Independent Consultant)
• Social Media Mining for Risk Analysis by Josh Ogden (Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions Inc.) – Not available
• Decision Intelligence for Unmanned Aircraft by Mike Hoodspith (Periculum Labs Inc.)
• Lessons Learned & Best Practices in Data Collection by Geert Bos (Vancouver International Airport)
• NAV CANADA’s Plan for Data-Informed Decision Making by Larry Lachance (NAV CANADA)
• Reporting and Analysing Data Equals Positive Safety Outcomes by John Gronlund (Porter Airlines)
• Using Data to Strengthen Safety Performance by Slawko Borys (Air Canada Rouge)

Industry Day Event Archive

The Safety Management Systems International Collaboration Group (SM ICG), a group of 18 aviation regulatory bodies, was established in 2009. Since its formation, the group has produced several products and has begun to focus more on outreach to the greater international aviation community. To that end, the SM ICG has begun holding Industry Day events during its semi-annual meetings. Read more about other SM ICG Industry Day events