industry UPDATE ON THE SAFETY ASSURANCE SYSTEM WHAT WE'VE LEARNED ABOUT SAS S T O R Y I B Y L I N D S E Y f your Part 121, 135 or 145 organization hasn't been SAS'd yet, you probably will be soon. In January 2017, Avionics News published an article summarizing the safety assurance system concept. SAS is essentially a new method of oversight, meant to provide aviation safety inspectors with standards protocols to evaluate certificate holders or new applicants. Design assessments and performance assessments are the core tools of SAS. Design assessments verify an organization's systems are designed to comply with regulations. Performance assessments are used to determine if those systems are producing the intended results. SAS applies to Part 121, 135 and 145 applicants and certificate holders and separates these entities into peer groups. For example, a Part 145 repair station within the U.S. is peer group F. Other Part 145 repair stations are peer group G or H. Different requirements are set for each peer group. 36 avionics news * april 2018 M C F A R R E N For the certificate holder or applicant, the primary interaction with SAS at this point seems to be through data collection tools, checklists which verify the entity's system meets regulatory requirements and addresses the six safety attributes of SAS: * Responsibility. * Authority. * Procedures. * Controls. * Process measurements. * Interfaces. The basic goal of SAS is to improve safety in operations by: 1. Defining detailed processes to help ensure consistent results and determining who is responsible and accountable for those results. 2. Proactively identifying possible instances of regulatory noncompliance or safety concerns by implementing controls (checklists, for example) and process measurements.