Brussels, 28/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - Europe wants to take over the top spot globally in air safety. To achieve this objective, the Commission has set out in a communication the challenges to be overcome and 10 initiatives to be taken in the near future. In the White Paper on transport the target is to reduce air accidents, which currently stand at about two per 10 million flights, by half by 2050. Since 2004, the downward trend in the number of accidents has been slowing while the number of flights is continuing to increase. There must, then, be no relaxation of effort on air safety. The Commission communication suggests options.
Being proactive. The communication works from a simple premise, stating that the EU must move away from a reactive system, where experience determines changes to regulations, to a proactive system which seeks to anticipate potential safety risks in order to further reduce the probability of accidents happening. The legislation is now no longer enough: action has to be taken, on air safety risks as Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas makes clear: “If we wish to continue to improve safety, we cannot rely solely on regulation. We must move towards a system that is proactive, evidence-based and takes action in advance to prevent undesirable events”. Evidence, then, has to be gathered and this can only happen if all aviation players cooperate and share information.
10 initiatives. To bring the new approach to fruition, the Commission communication sets out 10 initiatives. One is to revise and update rules on occurrence reporting. Current gathering and analysis of aviation “occurrences” is fragmented between member states and other competent authorities, a situation which means that relevant information cannot be extracted. The Commission will examine, following the results of the impact assessment on occurrence reporting, whether it is appropriate to bring forward proposals to establish a common risk assessment classification. The European Air Safety Agency (EASA) will also prepare an action, plan on air safety which may inform the Commission on how best to reduce risks. This action plan will be updated annually to determine progress achieved against indicators. These indicators still have to be agreed by all stakeholders. The watchword in air safety is information sharing. (MD/transl.rt)