Organisation wants to narrow the gap between accident levels in the developed and developing worlds

A plan for implementing global action on aviation safety, "particularly in developing regions of the world", has been launched by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. The growing chasm between the high safety standards of much of the developed world's aviation and the appalling accident rates in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo provides the motivation for what ICAO calls the Global Aviation Safety Roadmap (GASR).

GASR is the implementation programme for ICAO's strategic plan, originally dubbed GASP (global aviation safety plan), and it details multiple parallel taskforces with specific agendas between now and 2010, and after that a programme for consolidation of the work. The overall objective is to put some industry and government weight behind bringing all states into compliance with ICAO standards and recommended practices (SARPS). These standards are followed by some of the states that are signatories to the Chicago Convention - the treaty that gives ICAO its mandate - but are largely ignored by many of them. The plan is to perform "gap assessments" in these states to define the actions needed to move from the status quo to compliance.

What states have been told they must do
 The Global Aviation Safety Roadmap sets out priorities for action by states, including addressing:
  • Inconsistent application of international standards in individual states.
  • Inadequate national safety oversight systems.
  • Legal and cultural impediments to the reporting of errors and incidents so as to set up a "just culture" that does not discourage reporting.
  • Inadequate incident and accident investigation.

The programme also sets concurrent objectives for all sectors of the industry, including airlines, manufacturers, airports, air navigation service providers, and maintenance and repair organisations. Some of these objectives, such as compliance with regulatory requirements and operating an open reporting culture, are the same as those for states. But industry is also expected to address:

  • Safety management systems and adoption of best practice.
  • The shortage of qualified personnel in safety-critical sectors.
  • "The gaps in the use of technology to enhance safety."

 

The difference in this particular effort is that ICAO has enlisted wide participation by industry stakeholders in drawing up the implementation programme and in making it happen. ICAO lists participant organisations as the International Air Transport Association, Airbus, Boeing, the Airports Council International, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, the Flight Safety Foundation, and the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations. Together, these organisations form the industry safety strategy group (ISSG).

IATA had already set itself a goal to reduce the world average Western-built large jet hull-loss rate from the 2005 level of 0.76 hull losses per million sectors flown to 0.49 by 2008, with no intention of resting there. The US rate is about 0.4 hull losses per million sectors, so the hoped-for effect is to bring the world average close to the standards of the best. Australasia sets the ultimate standard with a zero big jet hull loss rate since 1996.




Source: Flight International

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