Safety management system and hazards in the aircraft maintenance industry: a systematic literature review

Abstract

In the last decade, the aircraft maintenance industry has experienced a paradigm shift in safety management. This is primarily due to the implementation of Safety Management Systems (SMS) in its business practices. The critical facet of such SMS recognizes hazards ahead of time. This review aims to undertake scholarly research to enable the identification of numerous hazards within the aircraft maintenance industry. This will be done by reviewing research articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science databases from 2010 to September 2022. Complying with the guidelines of the PRISMA 2020 updated statement, the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology is adopted for the review. The SMS-based framework was formulated to determine the inclusion and exclusion criteria, which identified 39 studies for inclusion. The key outcomes are (i) Thirty-five studies identified six hazard-prone areas and associated hazards of the aircraft maintenance industry, whereas four research studies (two each) underscored the factors impeding the safety critical SMS enactment and organizational learning from past accidents and incidents, (ii) Reviewed literature is a mix of both reactive and proactive methodologies of hazard identification (iii) Learning from past events is critical in safety management.

Keywords

• aircraft maintenance
• safety
• SMS
• hazards
• safety occurrences
• accidents