New white paper calls on industry leaders to consider complementary methods for the safe use of TSPs in Advanced Air Mobility
SkyGrid, an Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Third-Party Service Provider (TSP), released its latest white paper, Operational Risk Assessment for Advanced Air Mobility Third-Party Service Providers (TSPs). This paper examines the critical safety challenges associated with integrating TSPs into the AAM ecosystem and proposes a structured approach to risk assessment that ensures safe and scalable operations.
As the AAM ecosystem evolves, TSPs will play a crucial role in supporting highly automated flight operations, offering services such as real-time weather data, traffic avoidance, and flight management. However, existing aviation safety frameworks do not fully address the complexities of distributed, digital aviation systems. SkyGrid’s latest whitepaper highlights these safety gaps and presents the Operational Risk Assessment (ORA) as a complementary method to existing safety standards, providing a more holistic approach to evaluating TSPs.
“Traditional aviation safety assessment frameworks were designed for aircraft systems operating in contained environments with well-defined risks,” said Bryce Norton, Systems Safety Manager at SkyGrid. “TSPs introduce new, dynamic risks that require a broader, system-of-systems approach to safety. Our whitepaper explores how an Operational Risk Assessment method can help bridge this gap and ensure that TSPs meet the highest safety standards.”
The whitepaper evaluates current aviation safety methodologies, such as SAE ARP4761, and highlights their limitations when applied to distributed service providers operating across multiple aircraft. It advocates for an enhanced framework that integrates elements of ARP4761 with System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA), Safety-Critical Functional Thread Analysis (SCFTA), and Specific Operational Risk Assessment (SORA) to comprehensively assess operational risks. While this represents one proposed approach to developing an ORA framework, the whitepaper emphasizes that defining an industry-accepted framework will require collaboration among multiple stakeholders, including regulators, industry leaders, and technology providers.
“Ensuring the safety of autonomous aviation operations requires a unique approach that extends beyond the established processes currently in use for assessment of onboard aircraft systems,” said Christian Folgore, Director of Engineering at SkyGrid. “A comprehensive process is needed that accounts for the hazards and complexities of systems supporting multiple aircraft operating within a particular airspace. This whitepaper serves as the foundation for establishing a safety continuum for TSPs and driving industry-wide collaboration to achieve this goal.”
SkyGrid’s whitepaper serves as a call to action for industry leaders, regulators, and technology providers to collaborate on developing clear, scalable safety standards for TSPs. As AAM operations become increasingly reliant on cloud-based and autonomous systems, ensuring robust safety assessment methodologies will be critical to maintaining trust, reliability, and operational integrity in the future of air mobility.
