Eurocontrol says an independent study shows air traffic management (ATM) safety has improved in all respects except one - the failure to improve the rate of incident reporting and data sharing. The poor reporting rate results from the lack of "just culture" protection in most European states for those who submit details of occurrences because of "institutional and legislative issues", says deputy director ATM programmes Dr Erik Merckx.
Merckx says ATM safety has measurably improved "since the tragic aircraft accidents at Milan Linate airport [runway collision in fog] and Uberlingen [mid-air] in 2001 and 2002, respectively". The audit of member states has determined that the degree of compliance with Eurocontrol safety regulatory requirements (ESARR) has risen markedly in the past four years, which means national aviation authorities (NAA) and air navigation service providers (ANSP) now have in place most of the mechanisms and systems for providing and monitoring high-quality oversight and ATM services. Using compliance metrics, Merckx says ANSPs have improved their results by 15% and the NAAs by 12% since 2002, so the average level reached by ANSPs now is 70% and "in some cases achievements are up to 98%". As a guide to what the 70% standard represents, Eurocontrol says that in 2002 that figure had been declared "the desired, ambitious target to be accomplished by every state".
Merckx comments: "While we are very happy with the progress that has been made, we can't stop there." He says he wants to see all states exceed the 70% standards achievement level, not for it to represent an average. The two areas that still particularly need attention, he says, are the creation of legislation throughout Europe that will support a just culture reporting system so that faults are identified when they occur, and a continuing shortage of "trained safety personnel" in several states.
Source: Flight International
