ABSTRACT
System safety is the process of trying to postulate all the various ways accidents/incidents can occur and ensure that the design/function, operation, and physical attributes of a “system” mitigate the risk. System safety aids the development process in trying to do just that: understand how the aircraft, systems, and equipment could perform in unintended ways and establish requirements that ensure the likelihood of these unintended functions complies with the civil aviation regulations. In system safety engineering, different terminologies are used to describe the “problem”: hazards and failure conditions are the most common. The system safety process and the top-level safety requirements greatly influence the chosen architecture and its associated development. Defining architectures and equipment functional allocations without consideration of safety requirements fails to provide an adequate trade-off evaluation. For effective aircraft and system development, the system safety process must be integrated with the development process.
