Safety Statement
At Summit Helicopters, your safety is our number one priority.
With more than 20 years of operations in the industry, our organizational structure has been specifically designed to ensure our clients’ needs are met and their expectations exceeded every single time. We continuously use our strategy of innovation and constant improvement to identify and implement upgrades to all elements of our services – most importantly, safety.
With Summit, you can rest easy knowing that both our aircraft and staff are equipped to the highest flight standards. Our stringent company policies and history of safe flying are a testament to how we conduct business with safety as our core operating principal. As a Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS) GOLD, we can operate to a variety of Aviation Standards.
Our ability to exceed client expectations is strengthened by Summit Helicopters’ position as a subsidiary of one of Canada’s most successful construction businesses, the Ledcor Group of Companies. As a member of the Ledcor Resources and Transportation Division, we benefit from both the strategic and tactical leadership of Ledcor Senior Management. Their focus on safety is a fundamental driving force within all areas of business and allows us to work toward becoming a safety leader in the helicopter flight and maintenance industry. This is how we established our Safety Plan.
The Summit Helicopters Safety Management System (SMS) was established in 2009 and is voluntary and not required by Transport Canada regulations – but with clients as special as ours, we don’t believe in ever being “too safe.” In addition to an active Safety Committee, we also have a mandatory Drug and Alcohol Program that includes initial, random and incident testing for all employees, a rare practice in the industry.
Corporate Commitment
Summit Helicopters will always strive to operate in a manner that consciously safeguards our employees, clients, and the communities in which we do business.
To protect both people and property and maintain public trust, operational integrity and service reliability, it is the policy of Summit to:
- Operate and maintain our aircraft and facility assets in a responsible manner, placing a strong emphasis on safety and health.
- Comply with Transport Canada Regulations.
- Comply with applicable safety and health laws
- Implement recognized industry health and safety guidelines and apply prudent standards where regulations do not exist.
- Anticipate, recognize, and evaluate safety and health risk factors that potentially affect employees, customers, contractors, or the public, and implement appropriate measures to control, minimize, or eliminate such risks.
- Work with our people so that they recognize safety and health risks.
- Continually measure and improve our safety and health performance and provide resources to support our safety targets.
Safety Strategy
We take pride in the maintenance, cleanliness and reliability of our aircraft and facilities. In addition to our own 360-degree safety management system, we use audits by Transport Canada and existing or potential clients to improve our processes and practices. Our proactive effort and dedication to implementing cutting edge safety and working practices are core to our organization.
Summit Helicopters has developed a Safety Management System (SMS) capable of:
- Identifying or trapping unsafe actions
- Initiating corrective actions
- Continuously monitoring and evaluating operations
The components of our SMS system include:
- Reactive Reporting
- Proactive Reporting
- Investigation & Analysis
- Risk Management & Assessment
- Corrective Action Plan Review
- Trend Analysis
Flight Management System – Cirro
Summit Helicopters is a proud user of Cirro, a Flight Management software that we use in several different aspects of our safety operations. Built by pilots and operators, Cirro automates the compliance process of flight planning, following and managing, ensuring that everyday operations run smoother than they would with a paper trail. This includes:
- Flight itinerary planning and an additional Flight Risk Assessment tool, allowing the pilot to plan for every stage of the flight and documenting relevant information such as cargo and passenger weight, fuel load, routes plans and more
- Flight following for satellite tracking, real-time locations, system alerts and Search & Rescue feature
- Flight reports and duty time tracking to ensure that Transport Canada regulations were met and flight details are documented and signed by the client
Read more about Cirro’s capabilities here.
Our commitment to ‘Think Safety, Work Safely’ describes not only what we do, but also drives our actions, values and culture. We work to ensure our staff, customers and the environment are as safe as possible in our daily Summit Helicopter operations, and we encourage you to join us.
