In-Time Aviation Safety Management Systems for Increasingly Autonomous Wildland Firefighting Operations

An In Time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS) for wildland firefighting is a comprehensive approach to managing and controlling safety risks related to increasingly autonomous aviation operations in wildfire contexts. Elements of an IASMS include risk assessment and hazard identification, safety monitoring and control, safety policy and procedures, as well as learning and improvement. The IASMS concept assumes a set of enabling Services, Functions, and Capabilities (SFCs) will perform risk monitoring and support more timely safety risk assessment and mitigation. The IASMS concept is intended to be tailorable; that is, the set of enabling SFCs will vary due to the mission, vehicle platform(s), operational environment, and safety risk tolerance. This talk will consider increasingly autonomous aviation operations that are in a mid-term context (i.e., 3-5 years from today) in medium-density air traffic (i.e., 10-15 aircraft). Non-segregated operations are the desired state: Small UAS, large UAS, and crewed aircraft all safely operating different missions within the temporary flight restriction (TFR) airspace will need to be addressed. The efficacy of in-time, operational risk mitigation of increasingly autonomous aviation operations will be explored as a path towards assuring these operations and enabling their deployment in the wildland firefighting ecosystem.