Air Transport

Ramp accidents and incidents cost airlines far more than was originally estimated, according to the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF). The second phase of the FSF’s Ground Accident Prevention Programme (GAPP) has revealed that the FSF’s original “guesstimate” of $4 billion a year globally for repairs was close to the mark at $4.25 billion, but the cost of human casualties – not previously estimated – is about $5.8 billion, says Dr Earl Weener, who is leading the research process, writes David Learmount in Athens.

Since the GAPP began in its present form about two years ago, the FSF has improved its growing database by encouraging more reporting, Weener told last week’s FSF/European Regions Airline Association European Aviation Safety Seminar in Athens, Greece. But, he added, reporting globally on this kind of incident needs to be better. To aid this, the FSF has developed a GAPP reporting tool that enables airlines to enter data in a spreadsheet, which is compatible with its database, making analysis more effective.

So far the database reveals that the most common areas of damage, starting with the worst cases, are the aft cargo door, engines and wings, forward and aft fuselage, the forward cargo door, plus cases of damage that are unreported and causes unknown. The operations that cause damage most often are container loading and belt loading, catering and maintenance.

The ground equipment that causes most damage are high lift loaders and belt loaders. Inadvertent slide deployment is frequently caused by catering operations, Weener revealed.

The most unexpected discovery, said Weener, was the $5.8 billion annual global cost to airlines of human injury or death during ramp operations.