FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0841.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT OPERATIONS DAVID LEARMOUNT/ LONDON AGAS slams European ATM safety A study sparked by the mid-air collision over Germany last year uncovers widespread disregard of standards Eurocontrol safety regulatory requirements (ESARRS) are ignored in "some [member] states", and Europe has no central system for monitoring air traffic management (ATM) safety standards, says the final report of the high-level European action group for aviation safety (AGAS). AGAS was set up immediately after the 1 July 2002 mid-air collision between a DHL Boeing 757 and a Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154M over Uberlingen, southern Germany, to accelerate measures to identify, pri oritise and act on ATM safety prob lems, define European standards more clearly, and improve compli ance with ESARRS. Although industry expected that the review would deal directly with known issues such as eliminating ambiguity in airborne collision avoidance system (ACAS) guide lines and measures to reduce run way incursions, AGAS discovered more basic measures were critical. The European ATM system, accord ing to AGAS, must quickly train more air traffic control officers (ATCO) - of which there is a seri ous shortage; develop standardised guidelines for selecting and train ing ATCOs; establish a safety cul ture among ATCO teams; establish proper ATCO team procedures for dealing with equipment outages and transition to new systems; and develop "cross-border regulations functions". Although human factors (HF) and human resources topped the list of priority items, the safety PROCEDURES league table also included: • the need for incident reporting and data sharing; • on ACAS, the report says: "The application of procedures, interna tionally, has been shown to be sometimes inconsistent. This needs to be addressed urgently". Also, Eurocontrol should accelerate its work on the means for downlink ing ACAS resolution advisories - the onboard advice to pilots of crit ically conflicting aircraft on how to manoeuvre to avoid each other. The issues are technical feasibility and HF aspects, says the report; • air traffic management "safety net systems" like short/medium term conflict alert (S/MTCA) need to be more widely used; • runway incursion (see accompa nying story); • enforcement of ESARRs and monitoring their implementation; • safety and HF research. The report says: "Although Eurocontrol states have an obliga tion to implement ESARRs...imple mentation has been slow in some states with the result of a mixed achievement across Europe...more needs to be done to encourage states to implement ESARRs." It explains that "a few states have well defined safety strategies... [but] the major ity...have some way to go before their systems reach maturity". Compliance with ESARRs and International Civil Aviation Organisation standards would eliminate almost all listed prob lems except the lack of good HF practices, the shortage of con- Collision over Germany provided the impetus to set up the AGAS trailers, and the lack of an incident reporting system, AGAS makes clear. To kick-start action the AGAS team has condensed its findings into a 16-page glossy pamphlet describing the "high-priority areas", detailing what action is required by whom, and the timescale for completion. This will be distributed to "all stakeholders" says in the next two weeks, Eurocontrol. The chairman of Eurocontrol's safety regulation commission Phil lip Griffith opened the provisional council meeting that approved the AGAS report with the words: "There needs to be more leadership and commitment because otherwise none of this will happen." Action plan shows how to avoid runway incursion accidents The just-implemented European action plan for the prevention of runway incursions (EAPPRI) is a text book for pilots, air traffic controllers and airport opera tors on how to avoid another accident like the October 2001 runway collision at Milan Linate, Italy. The report on that accident has not yet been pub lished, but the EAPPRI, produced by the high-level European action group for aviation safety (AGAS), draws on lessons learned there. There were 122 deaths at Linate, 110 in the SAS Boeing MD-87 that was attempting a cleared take off in poor visibility, four in the Cessna Citation CJ2 that made the runway incursion, and eight people in the cargo centre that the MD-87 hit. The pilot took the wrong taxiway, and subsequent clues in the communications between the CJ2 pilots and the controllers indicating possible misunderstanding were missed by both parties (Flight International, 16-22 October 2001). For airport operators the main recommendations include the need to follow International Civil Aviation Organisation standards for procedures, signs and taxiway naming, and advice on driver training. Pilot, controller and driver communications should be "in aviation English" with standardised phraseology, and all communications that concern aircraft/vehicles entering or approaching runways should ideally be on a common frequency. Pilots must seek explicit clearance to pass a stop bar or cross a run way. Controllers should, "use progressive taxi instructions to reduce pilot workload and the potential for confusion". Aeronautical information provision standards are defined, and "significant aerodrome information which may affect operations on or near the runway should be provided to pilots 'real-time' using radios". 14 22-28 APRIL 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
