Oct. 25, 2018
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) recently published its Annual Safety Review 2018, a summary of incident and accident statistics and key safety, demonstrating the number of fatal accidents in 2017 was lower than the yearly average of the previous decade.
The review is one component of EASA’s safety management efforts, and is used to guide the European Plan for Aviation Safety. Historically, the review focused on data analysis of safety performance across 11 aviation domains, and in 2018, the review also includes a more detailed analysis of risks and challenges to aviation in Europe.
This year’s EASA report found aircraft upset and runway excursions to be key risk areas. Contributing factors of aircraft upset included improper monitoring of flight parameters and automation modes, in-flight icing and convective activity. Approach-path management, improper monitoring of flight parameters and automation modes and inadequate handling of technical failures were contributing factors in runway excursion accidents and incidents.
In addition to the Annual Safety Review outlining safety-related statistics and common risk areas EASA publishes each June, the agency will begin publishing preliminary safety statistics in January 2019, for the previous year. The FAA has no similar formal report at this time. Instead, the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee, a government/industry joint working group, tracks incident and accident data and analyzes that data to identify key risk areas.
“NBAA members – especially those operating in Europe – may find the information in the EASA Safety Review helpful in their own safety management and risk-mitigation efforts,” said Doug Carr, NBAA’s vice president of international and regulatory affairs. “NBAA also continues to work through the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee and several other mechanisms to improve safety in the U.S.”
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.