Perception of safety culture: Surveying the aviation divisions of Ministry of National Defense, Taiwan, Republic of China

The Aviation Divisions of the Ministry of National Defense (ADMND), Taiwan, Republic of China (ROC) have established internal independent safety audit systems across various divisions to improve aviation safety performance and maintain safety records. The safety audit systems include a pilot reporting system, operation risk management, operation information resource management, flight and base service reporting system, etc. that are similar to the key elements of Safety Management Systems (SMS). SMS shapes the local culture and is thus, a safe operational environment. As the safety culture is one of the critical deliverables of SMS implementation, this study examined the architecture of the relationships between components of organizational safety culture, including informed, reporting, just and learning/adaptive subcultures-all embedded within the ADMND in Taiwan. A total of 915 valid questionnaires, collected from crewmembers (pilots and ground support staff) of ADMND, were analyzed and formed the basis for structural equation modeling and subsequent analyses. The analytical results indicated that safety culture has been well-established within the ADMND which is fully in compliance with the fundamental implementation of SMS (AC 120-32C) issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of the Ministry of Transportation, Taiwan, ROC.