Global Safety effort Gathers Pace

Athens, Greece --[ASDWire]-- EUROCONTROL, together with stakeholders from across the aviation industry, has identified key initiatives to improve safety in the main risk areas in air traffic management (ATM) in a systematic and pragmatic manner.

At the Flight Safety Foundation’s 18th Annual European Aviation Safety Seminar held on 13-15 March in Athens over 200 participants from all the sectors of air transport industry met to share information and best practices in addressing the risks involved in day-to-day aircraft operations, aircraft manufacturing and maintenance, in ATC control towers, Approach and Area Control Centres, in communication between air traffic controllers and pilots and in the application of existing ICAO regulations.

“Working with the entire aviation community to identify common risks and to develop and implement common European risk reduction plans is crucial for improving ATM safety on a global level,” said Tzvetomir Blajev, Safety Expert at EUROCONTROL, and speaker at the Seminar.

To date EUROCONTROL has jointly developed detailed plans with key stakeholders – airlines, associations, air navigation service providers and regulators – for the prevention of runway safety and level bust occurrences. Each plan contains detailed recommendations and is associated with a toolkit specially designed to facilitate their implementation. A European air-ground communication safety plan is also being put in place this year.

The sharing of information and best practices in safety risk areas in order to identify joint solutions is also facilitated by the EUROCONTROL HindSight publication. Safety alerts are another tool, designed to trigger proactive messages to the ATM community in respect of identified safety concerns or best practices.

The participants at the Seminar agreed on the usefulness of an online safety knowledge base, a recent initiative aimed at the development of an industry human factor toolkit.

Note to Editors:
EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, has as its primary objective the development of a seamless, pan-European air traffic management (ATM) system which fully accommodates the growth in air traffic, while maintaining a high level of safety, enhancing cost-efficiency and respecting the environment.

EUROCONTROL has 36 Member States: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

On 8 October 2002, the Member States and the European Community signed a Protocol on the Accession of the European Community to the revised EUROCONTROL Convention. Pending its entry into force after ratification by all Parties, certain provisions of the Protocol are already being provisionally applied.